1941-04-02 — Page 25

THE CHINA MAIL, APRIL 2, 1941.

BRITAIN CUTSTOLLAR.P. AID AT SEA BY USE OF CORVETTES

(By A Naval Correspondent)

THE ATLANTIC outlook is brightening. For a' fortnight I have been sailing thousands of miles out there investigating dangers, assessing possibilities for the immediate future and observing changes and developments in Britain's unceasing fight against the German U.boats across the biggest bat- tlefront of all.

"

British escort forces out there to-day are steadily being strengthened. Ships may still be torpedoed at times, but the chances of convoys to get through are better than they were at the begin- ning of the Winter. There are several developments that, if even hinted at, would be of vital value to the enemy.

BREAK

A prisoner who escaped from Pentonville Gaol, London, got a clear start because a warder was un- able to blow his whistle and the prison bell could not be sounded.

The prisoner, Bernard Silver, twenty-three, walked off dressed

in white overalls. He was one of

a working party busy near war- ders' cottages in Wheelwright Street, Pentonville.

The men were under the super- vision of a warder.

But the warder is forbidden to blow his whistle because the zound may be mistaken for an Incendiary bomb warning.

The warder had to return to the prison with rest of the work- ing party before he could give the

alarm.

No warning was sounded at the prison. The warning before the war was the ringing of a bell. That would now be taken for an invasion signal.

The ships of this particular! being a small-ship man. while convoy had their holds stacked his son is if the biggest war- A strong body of warders and with foodstuffs and war supplies ship of all, the Hood. The first police searched the district.

and aeroplanes from America. Not lieutenant

was

luxury-liner

RULES FOR LIPSTICK

hip was lost throughout the officer in peacetime. He was in un, but there is a crippled U-the Royal Navy Reserve and Foot out there somewhere. A found himself in the doomed corvet e, one of the toughest little armed merchant cruiser Patro- warships in the world. did that. clus. He clung to a tiny raft for I am the first naval correspond-seven and a half hours before a to sail in these new anti-jde: troșer picked him up. The submarine ships. testing their naviga'or has been reven t mes endurance and fighting efficiency around the world in tramp ships in northern blizzards and howling and he 15- only

sub- 27. The

The Storm over gales and head-on to the Alan-Heuten.nt is a 21-year-old Baro- De rollers. These long-funneled, net.

Commandant's Lipstick whale-catcher type of warships Down in the mess deck they is to reverberate in the are smaller than destroyers and spin yains about their adventures were the answer to Britain's earlier in the war. Most of them House of Commons. prayer when the Atlantic outlook have been "over the side" and was blackest, when France had most of them have had their tive M.P. for Rochester, who is a caved in and we had to fight baptism of fire at sea. I would scientist, has put down these ques- alone,

tions:

Advantages

There was no time to build de- stroyers to beat the new, inten-

U-boat warfare. So decisions were taken.

:he

crisis To-day

you find corvette groups operat-

alongside

06

destroyers

and

loops with convoys. Their ad- vantages are

these:

They

can

back these corvette men fight against any U-boat.

SWAM IN

in

MINEFIELD

û

light U-boats in the foulest wea-| An RA F. radio operator who ther and they can be built reason-baled out of his bomber had to ably quickly. I look forward to the swim quarter of a mile to time when from 2 single slip-shore. way one corvette can be put

100

to

every month. Shipyards in the dominions as well as at home

are building them.

he

And when he crawled ashore was told that he had been swimming through a minefield. Twice in a fortnight the same

A corve te costs only a small airman, A nineteen-year-old- fraction of the cost of a destroyer. night-sergeant, had to bale out. Numbers count in screening

a and each me he got away convoy from U-boats, So the safely. cost of escort craft comes down. On the first occasion he Was The ange of these tiny

war nearly at the end of a ten hours' ships

is a secret, but they are flight to Germany and back. His fitted with the same efficient anti-bomber had almost reached the submarine gear as the crack de-cast coast when the engines cut stroyers, and submarine protec-out. The captain gave the order to tion has recently been further jump. improved. While not so fast

"I soon lost sight of the rest of destroyers, they are fast enough the crew," said the radio opera- to pursue U-boats, and that is tor. "Down below, was a choppy. all the speed they need for the sea, with land a quarter of र job for which they are being mile away. I hit the sea feet

They need only fifty mi, first and plunged straight down.

#1 went right under the water with the parachute on top of

built.

a third of the ship's company of

a destrover.

"Flat Goldfish”’

The corvette is in herself only

a tiny target, whether she

the

Captain L. F. Plugge, Conserva-

To ask the Secretary of State for War whether in view of the assistance given by the State to the Red Cross organisation, he will state the policy with regard to the use of lipstick by women serv- ing in that organisation.

To ask the Secretary of State for Air and the First Lord of the Admiralty the policy of their de- partments with regard to the use of lipstick by women attached to the Royal Air Force and Naval Service respectively.

Brigadier-General Sir Archibald Home, Suffolk County Fraser Director of the Red Cross, object- cd to the use of lipstick.

This led to the resignation of Mrs. Fellowes, Assistant Com- mandant at a Suffolk Red Cross hospital.

PATIENTS FELL THROUGH WARD FLOOR

When a bomb hit a women's ward at the City Hospital, Ply- mouth--which, it is now disclosed, was damaged in a recent rald-- me. Though it must have been the ceiling and walls collapsed and only a second or two, it seem ed ages before was able slip off the harness and come

18

being attacked from the air or

up.

on or under the sea. I see no reason why Britain should not have 200 or 300 of these anti-

Lost Consciousness

the floor gave way, several of the to patients falling with the beds to

the floor below.

Even so, only one of the thirty patients-a girl-was killed, though a few others were serious- ly injured.

The City Hospital is owned by

Gubmarine warships sooner "As I struck out for shore, than most people might think, my heavy flying suit held me the Corporation. The corvettes are lively in the back, so that I had to fight for seaway. The men who sail in each stroke, The land looked them suffer discomfort in even the very far away, and never, seemed slightest swell.: When they are. to come any closer. battling through Winter-gales their "Just when i thought I should. broad betims roll with the sickening movement of a fat, gold- fish flicking its tail, to jerk over on its side when somebody bangs its bowl

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STRING OF ONIONS- £26

have to give in,” I touched ground and crawled out of the sea. The beach was flat and A string of onions has realised covered- with` mud. ) slumped £28 for Preston's free buffet for. down and Tost. consciousness members of the Services at Pres- for about an hour.

ton railway station.

J have sailed more than 25,000 miles in covering the war at sea, "When I recovered I saw a The onions, given by Mr. R. mainly in destroyers, but I have building above a group of smáll Whittle, of New Longion, were never known anything, like the rocks. I made my way through raffted among members' of the, roll you yet in these corvettes, and at once some guards flashed Penwortham-- charity committee Corvette men have been hand- their torches on me...

at 28, a time. The winner was o picked for their endurance, and "I remember wondering what Farington engine driver. when they prove they can take it they would make of me, for my they' say they would not change flying kit was covered all over They are proud of their task, with thick_mud, Then they told

They had to be in this trip me that. I had teen swimming DRUNKS ARE FILMED made," what>with" gales, bliz | through a miriofield.'

zards, Vagumila · ́and, three dayg|

or living on" ~hardtank," "They

certainly earn thele money, "Out"

· Most effective way of fighting' against 'drunken driving in the US. Is proving to be the taking of

side of submarines there is not 9 SOLDIERS DROWN motion pictures at the scene of

a tougher job z afloat.

R

Would Back Them

Nine soldiers were drowned in.. kometer" machine test

Northern Ireland bay when à cói- for intoxication shows the cor- The commanding officer of the lapsible bont was swamped, relation between the alcoholic corvette in which I sailed is a "A verdict of Accidental death content of the blood stream and Royal Navy Commander who likes was returned, at the inquest. that in the breath,

LI

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