1941-02-19 — Page 7

CHINA MAIL Portrait Of A Hero

"WINDSOR HOUSE

"CONFUSIONISM"

This is the story of a twenty- two-year-old pilot who is now flying a Hurricane in a squadron.

I have chosen it to write out of many

(Without

Medal)

By RALPH INGERSOLL

lungs "Je suis Anglais. Anglais,"

ran

up

In a dispatch from Bel- stationed near London, grade to "The Times" a that I have heard first-hand be- few days ago there ap-cause it is the story of a young man who is not regarded as a hero, peared this comment:

Je suis Hart explained his nasly job, "The Berlin corres- He has never broken up a for-

because "Tall-ass-Charlie" must mation of bombers single-hand-

By so fast and throw himself into pondent of the semi-ed-a fleet of Messerschmidts Belgan soldiers

all such violent, continuous banking official Vreme

wrote downed two and chased the rest around him, pointing their guns that he is either continually black-

home-as had two of the men I at him. Finally an officer came. ing out-that to-day that high German met who had recently been de- When the officer recognised his blood out of his

is, throwing the head until he circles were declaring that corated. I shall not call my un- uniform he told the men to put goes temporarily blind-or com-

decorated hero by his name be- down their rifles, and came Germany has been lead-

uping close to it. Cause he is very shy, and this and embruced young Hart. ing journalists on' with story will embarrass him enough. rumours of impending As it is, I shall call him Pilot trouble in the Balkans, SO Officer Hart, and this is his story that now they had lost; ber: their orientation and had no idea where the expect ed 'decisive' blow from Germany was going to fall."

in as much detail as I can remem-

The officer turned out to be a count-cousin of the King of the Belgians,

He said he nicely, except it was late after

was doing quite

noon and they were flying Cast and the sun was right behind him. Two Messerschmidts with rannon came out of the sun and were on Hhis tail before he could do any

thing about it.

The next two incidents were not as dramatic as the first. Oxford, and had done a little fly-times he flew a Hurricane to land When the war began he was at was simply shot down twice. Both

ing there under the direction nf on English Soil. Once he was holy after the war began, fly-

He went to France fighting over the Channel, once over the Thames estuary. On neither vecasion did he where the bullet came from that disabled his plane.

The RAF.

ing a Spitfire, The first time he was shot down was over Belgium during the retreat.

He was in a dog-fight with a Messerschmidt tc

109 at 28,000 or breathing oxygen 29,000 feet.

the

through his mask, watching German as the two 'planes circled, sparring for an opening.

This is a good example of the new technique of propaganda developed a high art by the Nazis. It consists of spreading half a dozen different rumours to confound the enemy, of The first thing he remembers is getting what felt like a terrific turning the other cheek kick in the pants. His plane went while preparing to slay several hundred feet straight up the bemused, of display-seconds, he got another kick in ing coyness and an ac- The pants. The plane went on and commodating spirit that four or five hundred feet, and glove a murderous intent.ed out, his 'plane didn't have any It might be called the wings on it. technique of "confusion- ism."

"Confusionism" played a very

real part in the downfall of France before and during the German armed attack. It is being used on France to-day with a devilish disregard of human feelings but with the same singleness of purpose that has car- ried Nazism thus far. The

!

1

in the air. Then, within few

this time, he says, when he look-

He said to himself, "I don't know what did it, but it is obvi- ously time to get out.”

By this time he found himself and his fuselage upside down. The glass cover to the cockpit of Spitfire slides back. He AVIS

#

looking down through the closed glass cover to the ground below

hun.

the glass hatch free and slid it clear.

Using both hands he got

Then he expected to fall out. He wanted to fall out But he didn't because he had forgot'en about the safety helt.

What was left of the plane con-

1

arms flew out fron his s.des, and he found himself looking at his hands.

Vichy Government is told tied to fall upside down. Fin- that some of the many ally he remembered the safety French prisoners will be dropped out sharply and the wind

belt, and he let go the clasp.

released; then the an i began to turn him round. As he nouncement is found to urned, his have been premature. The frontier between occupied and unoccupied France is opened a little; then it is closed tight. Rumours are spread that the British people hate the French and care nothing about

He says when he saw his hands

he thought very clearly he didn't like them, because they ought to be pulling the rip-cord on his parachute. In a kind of rush of panic he looked for the handle of the ripcord, found it and pulled.

After the parachute opened he found himself sitting there with

suffering humanity. no sense of motion. He felt "very Classes are played off, safe and sound," and decided that this was rather a unique oppor- one against another.

tunity to look around the coun- A brand of social-tryside. He was still very high up. As he looked down, the first ism is offered to workers; thing he noticed was that some a brand of capitalism is thing was happening directly be- neath him. He could see puffs offered to employer; "se-

were running across a clearing. curity" is offered to civil employees-all, of course, depending upon the de- feat of Britain.

P

know

He was sim-

BIG Boy

TO ALL THE

GIRLS

AN ODD

BANK OR Two

As they dived, they made a V about forty-five degrees wide con- verging on the back of his neck. Both let go from very close, cross- ed, went under him, and disap- peared.

thing else in the world; and that is a fighter. Friend or foe, they just don't like us."

He began to feel pretty desper- ate and lonely, and couldn't think how to make the bombers under- stand that what he wanted was simply protection.

Finally, he had an iden. He took his handkerchief, out of his pocket, reached down and dipped it in the blood from the wounds

on his feet, He held the bloody handkerchief over his head.

He said the bombers caught on the minute they saw the bloody scared me even more because they handkerchief, "But then they

gan crowding into the "gun tur got so curious, all the crews be-

rets to look at afraid they would veer over and

me, and I bump into me, because.. 1

not steer very well.

Wis

could

"I finally had them. I just cut down in front to keep them right up on my tail. They still couldn't go quite as fast as I could, and when I had them up on my tail

BAD

FOR

THE

NERVES !

A WILD SPLURGE

OR

THAT COUNTRY ESTATE

NOT FORGETTING THE BOMBER FUND

By The Rain's Grace We Have Three More Days To Let Our Hopeful Ima-

ply flying along and suddenly his motor was hot and things began to go wrong.

The first time he had the choice between making a landing in enemy territory and trying to get home. He decided to try to ger home.

He came

and an anti-aircraft flames all round him.

The next time was much liko

ginations Run Loose.

Three cannon shells tore off not; I knew that if any trouble came quite half the covering of the they would catch it first." horizontal tail and flippers and part of the vertical stabiliser An He said this as if he had play- and part of the rudder. Hart ex-| ed a rather sly trick on the bomb- plained this because he was try-ers-a sly and not entirely cricket ing to impress on me how much trick. punishment a Hurricane' can take and still fly home.

:

landing

shot not

if by the discharge of buckshot a The sixth time he was

Then things began whizzing by him. He said to himself, "This

The Afth time he grounded. He would be my luck to bale out in

got the 'plane back to England, but the middle of a battle and get

It never occurred to him until lost it because the only place he shot by a stray bullet."

He knew the motor was hit in much later in the story to throw could find to land after the motor some vital point because the The method stops at

The lower he got the closer the temperature began rising, but, that in the casual fact that the three had been shot out over the Chan- the nothing in audacity and bullets came, until he thinks he was all. The temperature kept on cannon shell explosions had giv-nel was along a beach on

en him a shower bath of steel south coast, and although he got mile rising all the way home. When

the 'plane down quite whole, it gall in relations with the must have been about a

high. Then it came to him that he was over England, but before fragments from the rear.

was outside the barbed wire en- non-Nazi world. It per- this was no battle going on be- he had found his field, the cool | :

Fifty-odd pieces of shell frag-tanglements and mined mits the occupiers of The neath him. The shooting he was ing fluid caught fire.

his seat and lacerated his legs as Hague, seized in violation serving was at him. Machine- swirling Into port with smoke and ment came through the bottom of areas.

guns, rifles of The Hague Convention battery were all shooting at him.

few feat away. of 1907, to wave that pact] He said, "Then I got really

Half-way across the Channel in a mighty outburst of scared." He came down the last the last, except that ence with he caught up with three Bristol

few thousand feet knowing things'

some experience

In this whole narrative of his. factitious umbrage were very wrong, and that

the cooling fluid

catching fire, and Blenheim bombers returning from

He recognised experiences, which I had insisted against the determination shooting was coming from people after the motor reached a certain a daylight raid.

The them as English, and said they on, I suddenly realised he had temperature he shut it off.

looked awfully good to him. He not told me single story of vic- of the United States to de-

motor immediately froze,

flew down to come alongside tory, a single incident which di fend itself against the He landed in a field, picked him- self up yelling at the top of his

them. When he got there they reetly reflected credit on him or were in formation. Instead of made him a' hero. spread of Nazi power to

welcoming smiles, he watched six their continent. It is es-

he was functioning as "Tail-ass gun turrets swing round and in his squadron, "I learned he had

twelve machine-guns train sentially a method used world over. But behind it

him. by charlatans from time lies a force that must be immemorial and the reckoned with.

on his own side.

had had

He admitted that the next time he was shot down it might make a story. That time-his fourth.

over

Charlie" for a squadron of Hur- ricanes. They were flying enemy territory, going along the German-held coast of France.

on

Hart said, "There's one thing that bombers hate more than any

down Hart said was really worth talking about because “ab- solutely nothing happened."

Not from him, but from others

four confirmed planes to his cre- dit, one a bomber, and that he had probably shot down as many more that were not confirmed: