THE CHINA MAIL, AUGUST 5, 1940
CHINA MAIL
EWINDSOR HOUSE D
"I SOLEMNLY DECLARE"
,
It is one of the curiosi- ties of our age that Hitler and Mussolini, however often they have broken their word, never cease to offer it as a guarantee of safety which should be cheerfully accepted. Hit- ler, his path already strewn with betrayals, offered Poland a guaran- tee of her frontiers only a few weeks after he had destroyed Czecho-Slova- kia. Similarly, Mussolini, in declaring war on Bri- tain and France, gave as- surances to the other Me- diterranean States:
I solemnly declare that Italy does not in- tend to drag other peoples who, are her neighbours by sea and by land into the con- flict. Let Switzerland, Yugo-Slavia, Turkey, Egypt, and Greece take note of these words of mine, for it will depend upon them whether they are fully confirm- ed or not.
VERY WELL ALONE "
(Copyright in All Countries.)
He Beat The
Zeppelin
Let Lieutenant
East of London, where the fog was not quite so heavy, when I noticed all the searchlights in that quar- tcr.concentrate. in an enormous pryramid. Following them up to the apex I saw a small cigar-" shaped object, which I at once re- cognised as a Zeppelin, about 15' miles away and heading for Lon- don.
At
At the moment Mussolini
ITO study the airship raids on, wants no more enemies: Britain in the last war, as I than he has deliberately have just been doing, is at least topical. Oddly enough, it is al- chosen. He has to settle most sedative to read about raids with Britain, and unless so old-fashioned and so compar-
atively mild. Germany and Italy can In all the 51 airship raids of the beat us he cannot get war 556 people were killed and what he wants. But if 1,357 injured. More than half official history records that in the he was picked up by the Victoria
these came in the first year, when
"All the time I was having an the Finsbury Britain were beaten his England was practically defence-spring of 1916 a "Royal Flying Park and
Park extremely unpleasant time, as to. words
Corps, transport was attacked and searchlights. would instantly less.
In the earliest raid on Lon-damaged by a crowd. in Hull, an
get to the Zeppelin I had to puss don Kapitanleutnant Mathy took R.F.C. officer was mobbed in Be-Robinson, the young pilot on pa-ing shells from the A.A. guns be- lose all value. He wants his LZ38 over Hoxton, Shoreditch, verley." The reply to this and to trol from Hainault Farm, take up low. Being about five miles.be- William Leefe through a very inferno of burst-
the Dalmatian coast from Whitechapel and Stepney, drop-more official and police approaches the story.
ping a ton of bombs. Seven people was to provide Hull with
hind the Zeppelin, I had an ex- Yugo-Slavia, part of Asia were killed, 35 injured. Kapitan- defences. They consisted of two up by the searchlights over North- this point misfortune overtook me,
some "At 2.5 a Zeppelin was picked tremely uncomfortable time. Minor from Turkey, and leutnant Mathy had a completely 13-pounder guns loaned tempor- West London, I saw shells burst- for my mechanical pressure pump
Not a gun arily. so on. Everyone knows undisturbed voyage.
was fired at him. There was no
ing and night tracer shells flying went wrong, and I had to use my the extent of these ambi-black-out.
around it. I flew about 800 feet hand pump to keep up the pres- Kapitan leutnant Mathy had al-'below the Zeppelin from bow to sure in the petrol tank. This ex- tions. He merely wishes,
ready taken his tour over the stern and distributed one drum ercise at so high an altitude was by threats, to keep
At this time the German High whole length of Woolwich Arsen-along it. It seemed to have the
no very exhausting, besides occupy- Command had orders that there
effect. I therefore moved to onejing an arm, thus giving me one prospective victims quiet should be no bombing west of the
side and gave it another drum hand less to operate with when I until he is in a position to Tower of London. But the Kaiser
distributed along its side, with-commenced to fire. changed his mind later, and by take from them what he September 8, 1915,
we find the wants. They know it as same Kapitanleutnant Mathy tak- ing a voyage along the Euston we all know it, yet he, like Road, dropping his bombs in Theo- Hitler, thinks it worth balds Road, Gray's Inn Road, Hat- ton Garden, and Farringdon Road, and so, with more bombs, Smithfield Market, Moorgate, Liv- erpool Street, Norton Folgate. His progress, we are told, gave every appearance of unhurried calm, though "all 26 guns in the vicin- ity of London fired at him."
while to keep up the pre- tence.
DEMOCRACIES AND THE CHALLENGE
לי
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to!
"Perhaps the best impression of
።
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William Walwyn Tells Of A Deed
That Won The V.C.
out apparent effect: I then got "As I drew near' to the Zeppe- [behind it (by this time I was very lin to my relief I found that I close; 500 feet or less below), and was free from A.A. fire, for the concentrated one drum on one nearest shells were bursting quite |part-(underneath rear). I was then three miles away. The Zeppelin a height of 11,500 feet. - I was now nearly 15,000 feet high hardly finished the drum before and mounting rapidly. I therefore saw the part fired at glow. In a decided to drive at her, for though few seconds the whole rear part I held a slight advantage in speed was blazing."
she was climbing like a
at
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rocket
I
The laconic official report cov-and leaving me standing. ers all the eeriness of night battle| between the single-seater fighter
"I accordingly gave a tremen- [and-the "clumsy airship. Those
dous pump at my petrol tank and the country's defences at that time al-though by good luck he had Cuffley at two o'clock- that morn-straight into her as I came.
who watched the Zeppelin fall at dived straight at her, firing a burst is given by the steps taken to de-dropped most of his bombs being may have seen something of let her have another burst as I There is one encourag-fend Hull after repeated raids had fore he got there and had to con- the fight, may have said to their passed under her and then, bank- ing thought in this des-brought protests and riots. The tent himself with four H.E. bombs neighbours: "That youngster de perate hour: We can protests were not mild. The of and 28 incendiary, bombs, which
ing my machine over, sat under serves the VC." There could did comparatively slight damage, scarcely have been an award like-neath her pumped lead into her her tail, and flying along under- count on the growing
and caused one death..
ly to be more popular. help of the American bast."
for all I was worth. It is foolish, and, By June, 1916, when there had It is rare when the man of nc- people. It is help that gratuitiously provocative, out loss of a Zeppelin, there were Lecfe Robinson's cold, factual ac-straight down on to me before I been already some 30 raids with-tion can tell us "what it felt like" "She then shot up about 200 ft., paused,. and came roaring down comes, as we may fear, to underrate the Italians only six R.F.C. squadrons on [count leaves all his feelings to be
It may come too or the machines they con-time we discern improvement. In that a pilot has described in the with the Zeppelin tearing after had time to get out of the way: I late.
guessed nt. But it so happens nose-dived for all I was worth late to prevent large parts trol. But it is right that the autumn raids of 1916 the first most convincing and moving way me, and expected every minute to of Britain from being rav- we should speak plainly Zeppelin was brought down by a all the sensations of this and any bb engulfed in the flames.
combination of air and ground at- other fight of the same kind. The "I put my machine into a spin aged. But it will give us about the atrocious im-tack.
describer is Second Lieutenant Wand just managed to corkscrew heart to feel that behind morality of which Musso- Sixteen. Zeppelins
on J. Tempest, who brought down out of the way as she shot past me September 2, all for London, each only a month later us are now whole-heart-lini has been guilty. In carrying a ton of bombs. Only one commanded by no less a person my machine and watched her hit a Zeppelin roaring like a furnace. I righted edly the vast material re- President Roosevelt's reached the objective, the SL11. than Kapitanleutnant Mathy him- the ground with a shower of
Mathy, who always sources of the United terse phrase,. "The hand and his London, apparently took
seemed to self.
sparks. I then proceeded to fire off dozens of green Very lights in States and the will to aid that held the dagger has no part in this raid.
The SL11 came in from the Not for Second Lieutenant Tem-[the exuberance of my feelings. I us with speed.
stuck it into the back of north. The commander was evi-pest the cold, formal-official re-glanced at my watch, and saw The task is hard but it its neighbour." Or, in Mr. dently in some doubt about his port. He wrote it on official pa- was about 10 minutes past 12.
Home Defence.
But from this
set out
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it
"I then commenced to feel very
is also clear. We know Attlee's comparison, Mus- whereabouts there was by now per, but that was the only official
a universal black-out-and-most thing, about it. It is such a re-sick and giddy and exhausted, and
the full depths of the per-solini's sordid motives are of his bombs fell in the suburbs. In markable piece of writing that I had considerable difficulty in find- 11.46 I found myself landing, In doing which I crashed against us. It is not an ful of scraps from another Northaw one, Gordon Hill three. South-West London at an altitude and cut my head on my machine-
fidy and wickedness pitted those of the jackal hope-bombs, in Littleheath three in
Mimms he dropped four am quoting it here as it stands. ing my way through the fog and
"About
occasion for what some beast's kill, of the petty Clayhill four, Cockfosters three, of 14,500 foot. There was a heavy gun,”
Hadley Wood three, Southgate ground fog and It was bitterly Between 11,45 and ten minutes
critics of Mr. Duff Cooper sneak-thief who hopes to three. In all, four people were cold, otherwise the night was past 12, from the time of turning cruelly (but not unjusti- rifle
beautiful and starlit at the alt-out the cat to the time of getting the pockets of the killed and: 12. injured.
He still come on and in the|tudent which I was flying. into bed this second-leutamant fiably) have called "bom-murderer's victim.
'right' direction. At Wood Green! "I was gazing over the North-Isaw life.
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