1941-01-20 — Page 7

Bombers Over The

THE SOVIET-GERMAN UNDER the stars the

PACT

The German-Soviet pact, signed on January 10, in Moscow, which has been described as "an answer to President Roosevelt's all aid to Britain plans," will not, it is considered, alter the former economic treaty existing between

estuary

shines silver, like a sword pointing to the heart of England. Danish longships rode its waters. a thousand years ago. From its beaches they ravaged and burnt.

At its head, where the sweet water lishmen overthrew them. It was

joins the salt, Alfred and his Eng-

Marshes

one of those great battles of his Defiance of East Anglia Fishermen Whose the oldest saga in the English Forbears Saw the Danish Invader Routed

turbulent times immortalised in

language.

To-day that river of the Danes

By J. Wentworth Day

1

Three nights ago, under the pile of nets by the fishhold hatch stars, I picked

my way catlike and the long grey barrel of the bettveen spars

and anchors, spare gun on the floor. dinghies tipped sideways and cables spread like man-traps. Ten o'clock and time to turn in aboard the dark little ship.

•

"Halt! Who goes there?" From the half-dark three forms loomed. A rifte was poked in my stomach. Identity card and naval pass were scrutinised,

is a highway for less noble pirates. Night after night the Nazi bomb- ers rour up the estuary, high and droning through sinister shapes the moon- wrack of the clouds. Far the two countries to any off the guns of London thud and

• important extent. The throb, Above the marshes by the sea searchlights pattern the sky signing of the pact may with the fantastically beautiful sound impressive on pa- geometry of war. per, but it is generally be- lieved to be of a sup- plementary nature rather than an expression of an intensification of warmth in the relations between the two countries. It is, of course, impossible to give an exact estimate until a detailed study of the text has been made, but no

There is no military objective fear is entertained that within 10 miles. No ship of war Old lighters the present economic sit-is upon the water.

swing at their anchors in the fair- uation of Germany will be way. "tore-out" Bulks. Sloops greatly improved thereby. In view of the blockade

I went aboard. The tiny cabin the British authorities

was warmly alight. Alf, blue- are naturally intensely in- Last week the local Blitz start-jerseyed, brown-faced, tobaer- terested in all possible ed in carnest. London's barbed-toothed, was making tea in the routes of supply for Ger-wire fence of gunfire sent us Lon-kettle, black and strong. The little

Simply Jettisoned

"They dropped a heavy one last Before dawn breaks in a wash night, sir," said the sentry. "Eight above the sea the fleet long, they say up back of of a green bombers return. The barrage has the town. There's another by Sum- sent merileet Farm and two *** them back, their

over wings riddled;

at Dunder Norton. Alt de- and as their bombs have not all layed action, too.” been dropped we get them.

beaten them. London has

traps for any enemy seaplane which might attempt to land on these lonely waters.

stick sideways in the mud

Blown Up In Smack

don's leavings--landmines, bombs stove glowed. It it with the warmth of a Flemish interior the many and for this reason, and machine-gun fire. when the announcement of the treaty was first made with the usual ac- companying fanfare from Berlin, to the effect that

TH

the leach o' the sail an' got atop the mast, and there they set like a pair o' owd cormorants till I tuk 'em off. Larf? I very nigh bust! But they're off ngin ter- morrer mornin' in another boat."

There is the plain tale of the typical smacksmén, unarmed, who trawl from dawn cach day, six miles out amid the perils of the sea, and back again at dusk.

Next morning, at 8 a.m., Alf and I weighed anchor. We stood off down the estuary in the pale light of newborn day. The drone of engines filled the sky like bees, Suddenly, somewhere in the half- light, there came the sinister Scream of a bomb. A shattering of water explosion, a mountain which tossed the smack like a

"Bert Woodrope was blowed up cork, a terrific blast of wind shud- by a moine s'mornin',"

dering through the rigging. An- Alf re- marked

other and another. calmly, stirring the kettleful with a fork.

"Killed?" I asked.

"Naow Only seairt. He got a wet jacket in a belly full o' salt water, but he's none the wuss o that, Smack's gorn, though."

"Where did this happen?"

"Om ospit. Runnin' wi' the wind they was, goin' a fishin' on the Main when all of a sudden up she blew! Blowed the bows clean off. Bert say the bowspit come right back double on itself and very nigh swiped him off the starn.

"Him and 'is dad tuk a lep into the dinghy but they ha'nt cut the painter, silly fules, an' down she went an' dragged 'er under with all o' the buth on 'em in fourteen font a water."

"But lor! You wunt drown they tow. Take more'n an owd Jerry to do that. They clumb) up

Battleship v. 'Plane

a new and far reaching THE precise awer trade pact had been sign- ed, some attention was directed to it.

fare.

J

to-

the

telescope trained on sudden death, Suddenly, as the gun barks, the

We picked ourselves up from The lee rail, lucky not

to have gone overboard.

The sky was alive with scream- ing gulls and fighting duck. Cur- lew yelled Hke banshees. Dogs barked at distant farms, Far ahead the bomber, baffled by London, droned out to sea, to Germany.

"Come on arter they fish! He'll ha' killed a carload!"

After The Fish

We tumbled into the dinghy, downstream. The rowed

Arsc bomb had fallen a hundred yards away. The other two had hit the mud, gashing great craters in its glistening surface.

On the tide drifted fish of all sorts, belly upwards, silver in the half-light. Bass, those brilliant fighters of salt water; plaice, sole, flounders; garfish with their long bony beaks; roker (as we call skates and bull-routs, those night- mare fish with the goggle eyes and horrific mouths all floating dead or stunned. Swiftly we scooped In half an hour we had filled the them in with long-handled nets.

big dinghy knee-deep. Hundreds floated away.

A

A.B.,

Cockney to the ultimate hair of

small ginger-haired

his quiff, poked an chin in the face of a Sapper and aggressive

demanded truculently:

"Wot the 'ell are you sappers doin' 'ere? Eink we can't manage a mine or two wivaht the Army pokin' its nose in? Any'ow, 'oos mine is it? We was 'ero 12 hours ahead of you.”

London For Danger

the most, nets-strange sight for sailors They have not long to wait. The the hum of the motors again--faintly. element, dramatic t fire present war's moving on their problem the superiori'y u! sea.

and there in the sun's path the the bombing eroulare over the Astern, with the solemn maj-glint of wings,

Again the guns battleship or vice versa---is still esty befitting the Queen of the speak. But the 'planes come on; a battleship, her out of the sun they dive and the

Yet another side of the picture. The German radio and hidden in the smoke of sea war- Seas, steams

faint hum of motors quickens to That night great guns loaded and lifted

I went ashore to the inn. Bomb-disposal press, in an effort to clothe

One thing, is, however, certain, wards the loom of the land. She a terrible roar the sharp and wate nigh the event with import-sea power is facing its most dift. Is the destroyers' charge; around high and frightening crescendo of squads had arrived-one of naval

and weave

the power dive, the less rapid men, the other Sappers. They met cult and important test, and on it and about her circle ance spoke of it as a de-outcome will depend the direction and patrol half a dozen destroy-tempo of the glide. All about now in the bar.

the sky guns of the fleet are firing, noters, the white wash of their pass first the short, hard bark of the finite blow to Britain, but of armaments and strategy

scud of the four-inchers, now, as the 'planes this appears to be as usual only in this war but also those of ing mixed with the

wind-whipped sea. the distant future.

come closer, the quicker, deafen- Paravanes---those torpedo-shaping rattle of the pom-poms and а To describe grossly exaggerated. The

fight between and destroyers takes ed wire cutters that angle away the machine-guns. Chinese press, which is bombers

longer in the telling than in the from each ship's bow to cut

They are coming now-right out usually well-informed on action; it is sporadic, intense, sud- cables of anchored mines and of the sky like a plummet; and, refend them away from the ship's though the shell bursts burgeon these matters, remarked den war waged relentlessly,

A tense and dramatic side-are streamed: from: every round them, they come on--faster, that from а practical peatedly.

account from the pen of: H: w: vessel; but the little minesweep-faster, as straight as an arrow to point of view very little Baldwin appeared, recently, in the ers themselves, which must bear the mark, the awful roaring whine The the brunt of danger, plug along of their coming striking terror at benefit would accrue from New York Tires Magazine.

fight took place off the Norwegian ahead with the great battleship the soul. it. The reasons given are, coast.

directly in their wake. Just as a You can see the bombs now. in The lookouts behind the weath. wire: sweep cuts the cable of an the racks-dimly; you feel: very firstly, the Soviet harvest

er screens on the destroyer stars anchored mine and the deadly naked and lonely and insignificant last year was a bad one, unceasingly, faces creased from globular steel casing bobs to the and afraid but you serve the guns aand keep the cross vires of your and, secondly, Germany long vigil, at sea and sky. Time surface to be destroyed from must pay in cash for all was when the white feather of a saze: distance by rifle fire, those

periscope and the wake of a tor countless mirs of eyes turned, to" } tone of the awful roar alters, and purchases made. It was pedo were the only intimations of warts the sky see the enemy. also contended that as the danger, but now a black dot: In the sun glare may mean disaster Russian policy is to con- The crew is at its battle star clude similar pacts with tions, as the destroyer-pounding

in the seaway--eases warily in to any country, belligerent wards rock-bound coast: or otherwise, the recent Splinter mats are up, and the pact

does not indicate exposed gun crews wear steel hel. that Naziism as a policy, is so dear to the Soviet parties to trade with each heart that it must have other, as their ability to preferential treatment. In overcome transport difficraft detector: fact, the. Chinese press culties. That these exist "Commence tracking, commencaahead; struggling with the mines for it agin. Bits, of old: iron, flyin' considers Germany has has already been admitted tracking!"

at the bomb geysers subsiding into abart like, coconuts at a fair. I'd The planes grow bigger, those the sea;; at: a sister, ship: lating sooner stop dahn 'ere in the coun- secured nothing more by the very efforts which

badly, and taking, water, a pillmtry where it's quiet.” than a barter agreement the Germans are making The planes are too high for the

"Fire"*

of smoke and flame rising above.

We discussed: invasion, possibili- which bristles with diffi- to overcome them. Trade pom-poms, and machine-guns, but You, serve your gun and thistles. There entered Gunner Gur- culties at the outset.

too, as the Chinese press er, shelly are bursting around fight. You can see the bombs wild-fowlers.

The great guna speak and soon the time the 'planes bomb in lavel tim, white-bearded,, 75, Icing of the The German announce has pointed out, can only power a new and bitten enemy leave the bellles of the airgraft for ment that the agreement be conducted with such ty or But now, out of closer, closer. Your muscles are in, motion: bolla, of white. The up there and come hurtling, down. is a direct blow to Mr. pluses possible to spare the inlet astern launched from an tense and your jaws are set and

*Du! What'll I du, marşter?: I'll Winston Churchill by from the large and Im alreraft carrier's dock fifty of a aching, you serve your gun, and

hundred miles away, roar, sea | the fleet, steams on..

tell you what I' hev done, I've facilitating trade activity perative needs of the sig oven newent weapon- equi The fighting ship and the fight loaded my owd punt gun, nine on a wider scale than was natories to the pact. With hon of defending rhters and ing plane the former almost as foot long, with a pound of swan The aerini mumy, throttles wide, old as man's blue water history, shot as big as doctor', pills, and possible under the former these facts in view the turns and escapes towards land the latter a new and unknown 1 reckon. If them beggars cum up German-Soviet pact re- efficacy of the British But this is only the beginning factor in the equation of war our river I ont art warm their and the men at the gune the steel are settling, the fate of nations in jackets for erm. I'll Uddla, 'em up.” ceives little credence in blockade does not appear helmated men who search the the relentless fighting that, in-wo-plant London. It is not so much to be greatly affected by skies and feel so small, with mines ing on and that is sill to ensue. That is the spirit of the estuary and submarines below, and 'planes But Britain has always been able, fólks,, as it was when the Danos the willingness of the the new pact.

above-know-it:"

to adapt herself to new conditions. came, as it always will be..

the

The landlord. blandly offered A black, dot to landward-one, you know that they have pulled him all the local mines free and two, three of them-and. now is out of it; that the bombs have carriage paid; with.a.V.C. thrown heard the faint hum of their en-dropped and the planes are zoom-in-but no quarrelling.

the ing up and away," gines above the wind and

In one fleeting, second of im- "Yus, guv'ner," said; the-Cock- voice of the ships moaning in the mortal time you'll know whether ney; "but: see 'ere: This is a lifting sea. The destroyers' main you've been hit. The bombs drop specialist's job. I'm a specialist. batteries rise towards the TRTY- gets; on the battleship the anti-and the ocean opens up in a rush So's me mates. We 'andle all the of water close aboard; you feel the mines: rahnd: 'ere wivaht: the aircraft: battery-eight: four-in-wind, of death on your face and Army buttin' in. chers-elevate to the heavens, the sound of it in your ears-but- train; to starboard: The men in you are not hit; the destroyer 1 steel helmets leap to their in- shivers, but steams on:

"Dangor? That aint: dangerous once you knows, the works. Dan- complicated box of the anti-air-wreckage of several planes upon ter London. I. 'ad! 24 hours leave struments - height; finders, the You look about you; at: theger? If you want: danger, go up.

the water, at the sweepers away last week--yes, sir; an' no fanks

tiny dote against the sky

her

mastheadi

**What: wlll^ you do, Gunner, if

the Germans come?" I asked