THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 23, 1941
WHILE THEY PRAYED
It was Sunday morning]
FLYING-BOAT PICKS CITES A UP 21 SURVIVORS WOMAN
OF 86!
A SUNDERLAND flying-boat with a crew from a Royal Australian Air Force squadron, was on patrol in the Atlantic recently when a glimmer of light was sighted about 10 miles away.
"I flew around waiting for daylight, hoping it The warmi sun would be possible to make a landing. We flew over through the to investigate and found a lifeboat," said the air- in craft pilot, quoted by the Air Ministry News Service.
streamed
trees copper-tinted London's sleepy squares.
There were no bells to beckon "Its occupants had heard the the people to prayer, but men and round of our engines and flashed women strolled, Prayer Book in a lamp to attract our attention,
"After hand, over the leafy carpets,
an hour there was in a quiet enough light and we came down Inside one church, side street near a square-which on the water without difficulty. the day before had hummed with | "We took 21 men on board and cars, taxis and the wheels of work | tock off again very easily, despite -the black-gowned verger soft- the extra load."
ly prepared for Holy Communion.
A few men and women knelt In prayer. They gave thanks to God for their deliverance from the murderer who had shattered their world; they prayed for an early overthrow of terrorism; they prayed for the return of their serving sons and evacuated daughters.
Through the vestry walked the priest, his surplice gleaming white against his sombre cassock. He carried the chalier and plate.
Drone Of 'Planes
The service began. Quietly they repeated the priest's pray-
ers.
Suddenly the stillness of the church was pierced by the "Alert" | signal wailing from the siren of a police station nearby.
The service went on.
Soon came the drone of Ger- man planes the sound of hell stealing furtively through the heavors. Reverently the worshippers said the Lord's Prayer
"deliver us from evil. .
of
Then, violently, the scream å falling bomb drowned their words.
A rending crash above their heads. Showers of bricks, twist- ed rafters, jagged lumps of con- crete, splinters of stained glass rained down
then allence.
In the dense cloud of poN dered mortar, the priest still stood; his face, surplice and cas- sock caked grey with dust.
As he called words of comfor: to his congregation rescuers rush- ed into the church.
"A Miracle"
Those Left Behind
As the Sunderland flew back to its base the men enjoyed break- fast on board, They were SUT- Vivors of a torpedoed ship.
The boat was found nearly 200 miles trom land and the men had been in her for three and a half days.
1914-18
V.C. REJOINS
V.C. OF THE LAST WAR, CAP- TAIN GABRIEL GEORGE COURY HAS REJOINED THE
ARMY.
Не has been gazetted B5 lieutenant in the R.A.M.C.
+
They had little food or water in that time and thought the break-
Captain Coury was A second fast served to them by the Aus-
lieutenant in South Lancashiro tralians was the best meal they Regiment when he won the V.C.
hud ever had.
crew
Cigarettes which the 11 meni- bers ol the flying-boat banded round afterwards com- pleted their contentment.
The survivors were landed at a West Coast port. Twenty-five of the crew are missing.
The youngest seaman in the ship's crew said: "It was almost worth being torpedoed to get that air trip. It was fine and gave me a thrill.
"The crew of that Sunderland were a grand bunch."
HOME SOCCER
Following are Home football fixtures for Saturday:-
(London Cup) Chelsea v Brentford; Crystal Palace v Fulham; Queen's Park Rangers V Aldershot; The bomb had made a direct hit
Clapton on the roof, tons of masonry
Orient and
v Reading; Tottenham v wreckage had fallen.
Millwall; West Ham v Arsenal:
(League South)
Yet the worshippers were all alive. Only one woman, the priest's wife, lay badly hurt- In the choir stalls near the altar оп which God's symbol stood untouched.
Other members of the congre- gation were heiped into th- street, shrouded in dust but bare- ly more than bruised.
"We can only thank God for sparing our lives," said one. **It
in 1916.
During an advance he was in command of two platoons ordered to dig a communication trench from the old firing line to the position wen.
By his utter contempt of dan. ger, he kept up the spirits of his men and completed his task un- der intersc fire.
Later, after his battalion had suffered severe casualties and the commanding officer bad been wounded, he went cut in front of the advanced position in broad daylight and in full view of the enemy rescued his commanding officer.
GOERING GARDENS
For weeks a gaping bomb crater in a south-western town had in- terfered witn car-parking ar- rangements outside a block of flats.
One morning the residents woke to find their crater had been beautified.
Stone ornaments from neigh- bouring gardens had been col. lceted and tastefully arranged Portsmouth V Bournemouth; around the hole: three boxes of Scu hend v Brighton; Watford Southampton,
(Midland Cup) Luton I Northampton: Mans- field Lincoln: Notts Forest Leicester; Walsall v West Brom- wich.
V
(Combined Counties Cup) Semi-Final-Leeds v Hudders-
is nothing less than a miracle that | field. we were not all killed."
And in another church, a cou-
ple of minutes' walk away,
congregation
hymn.
(Lancashire Cup)
Blackpool v Manchester City,
the Burnley บ
singing were
The sun was shining.
I was Sunday morning.
WOUND-UP
Everton;, Manchester
a United v Bolton; New Brighton v
Chester.
(North Regional)
hydrangea blooms had been put on a ledge halfway down; flat stones had been arranged in a rough crazy paving at the bottom.
hole Dominating the chalked sign which read:-
"Goering Gardens." The hole vas alled in by the evening.
was
a
FUGITIVE SWAM TWO RIVERS
Before an escaped German pilot Barnsley V Bradford City; was recaptured he
swam iwn Chesterfield V Middlesborough; rivers and wandered for six days Doncaster v Rotherham; Livernãol
(South Regional)
v
1
von
v Oldham; Newcastle v Sheffield ever rugged moorland and swamp. When a petition for the compul-, Wednesday; Rochdale v
Franz Crewe;
Werra, twenty-si-g sory winding-up of a company Stockport v Southport; York lieutenart in the German Air came before Mr. Justice Bennett Hull.
Force, offered no resistance to the police at Esk, Fell, a lonely spot Cardiff v Swansea; Stoke v Notts on the moorland near Ulpha, on
the Cumberland border,
Exhausted through lack of food. play an Army he was taken to the prison from
which he had escaped,
in the Chancery Division, counsel said that, since the matter was last before the Court, the com- County. pany's premises had "disappear- | The Scot Ish Football Associa- ed," and he could not resist the tion will also order being made.
eleven.--Reuter.
C. INGENOHL'S
GRAND CORONA
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INGENOIES CIGAR STORES LA PUMA DUI
A woman of eight-six has been cited as co-respondent in a divorce suit in Australia.
Mrs Margaret May Dietmair, aged seventy-five, petitioning for a divorce on the ground of adul- tery, said she saw her seventy- four-year-old husband in bed with Mrs. Luwe, aged eight-sɔx.
Mr. Justice Roper, óf New South Wales Supreme Court, said:
"Where in the cvidence of adultery? Put an ordinary man and woman in bed and I would have no hesitation at arriving at that conclusion, But there is doubt here, with a couple
seventy-four and
a aned 6IX."
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