1955-08-13 — Page 6

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THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, AUGUST.

1955.

Wingate's tumultuous career moves to its climax. Then, a radio flash tells of—

NĮ the night. of August 4, 1943, Winston Churchill

ordered dinner alone at 10 Downing Street. He had a good deal to think about,

The following day he was to leave for the conference with President Roosevelt and his advisers at Quebec, And- high on the list of priorities for talks WAB the war against the Japanese in East - Asia.

Churchill had spotted a a Briton from whom he ex- pected great things in those operations. He had met Orde Wingate and appreciated his same time genius, at the

that he waS aware of his faults.

DISASTER at 4 a.m.

Chapter 8 In the story of Britain's Strangest. Hero

by

-LEONARD MOSLEY

'I'm ready'

THERE

WHAT'S THE RUSSIAN FOR ZANY?

Moscow.

7ES, there are smiles in Moscow these days, which of course is a welcome change but, believe me, there is still quite a lot of the same old Russia loft, which makes life odd for the foreigners and often downright frustrating for the visiting newspaper correa- requests for information. A. pondent.

phono

A MISTAKE!

I watched the guests making dreary volco, like one of those away with that load of fruit, gramophone records which An American colleague is

ielephones,

Very few of the bananda got answer

repeated

Most of whether there was opposition, wight. Look at Piccadily. We paying his second visit to over and over: "We are know eaten on the spot.

them were slipped Into, men's gliders Russia, the first having been ing nothing." and hold a perimeter while the can't possibly land

pockets and women's handbags, containing Elders

bulldozers there. What do we do cancel in the nineteen-twentica,

Finally-on the fourth day- One man slid, a couple behind and graders arrived with US. the operation?"

there was hope, "We have the display handkerchief in his technicians to work them, The

The other day he was written to Mademoiselle breast pocket, like cigars,, *

her. plan was, 12 hours after D-Day,

Was a long silence. writing a "then-and-now" Zhukova transmitting to to have a strip prepared for Dakotas to come in with Jeeps, Wingate's face went grey. piece for his paper, and your request.... "

On the sixth day my Brigadier Michael mentioned that the first time pack animals, guns, transport, And then

Then the columns Calvert, who was to lead the he ever saw Stalin he noticed rang. It was my pai from the and radlo.

"I have to inform (for would march out to meet the troops on the operation

the future leader of Russia Ministry, this time Wingate,

com- Japanese,

behind) had a large patch on the you that Mademoiselle Zhukova

has left Moscow on her honey- ES, It's much the same old

YES The spaces

the jungle mander, was staying They had started by disliking

sent of his trousers,

moon. She is thus not in a I Moscow. Walting anything the ability named Pigetdilly and Broadway

position to grant a meeting." RIT prepared," he said,

up to two hours to get an in- each other, but which each showed at his own had been thoroughly photo "to take all my brigade into This phrase was

blue- Job

changed this to

graphed weeks

That was the first time they'd different meal.... My being before: now Broadway. It'll mean & slower

consors, even admitted that the wedding Kremlin and then being refused sent on Invitation to the inutual respect,

Wingate ordered reconnaissance build-up and I'll have

to re-pencilled by the the height of this planes to keep off them, so as briet my Plecadilly men. Then, ut

But My colleague decided to nad taken place,

admittance. But why? I to lul Japanese suspicions.

we'll go.

contest the point..

naked. "You invited mo," "You must come with me to FLANKED by truisers, her dizzily happy period, double

pulvlied by Marines, disaster struck.

Wingate could not conceal his Quebec and tell your story to

A hunch a floating Firat he went

relief and gratitude. the Amerleins," Churchill said. the Queen Mary was It was LICAD

nine o'clock. "Our G.L.Q. with the brains and heart typhoid. train leaves for Glasgow at 10."

As Churchill sat down to din- ner the news come

That Wingate had arrived and was lo the house, Churchill immediately sent for him and asked him to join him at dinner. Wingate came in, clean-shaven, but still dressed in his bush-shirt and denim trousers.

The two men took to each other st

once

Orde Wingate leaped like a

spring trout at the opportunity, and then immediately afterwards

remembered his wife,

The power

"They had

very happy voyage together," rays Churchill of the Wingates' trip in the Queen Mary to Quebec.

Floating G.H.Q.

down

with

in

on

camo up.

4

"Don't you see," he urged, The timo was six o'clock in "It shows the simplicity of of the British war effort aboard. When Wavell heard about it, ORTUNATELY for him, the evening of Sunday, March

Churchill and the Chiefs of he had Wingate flown 10

one of Cochran's

pilots 5, 1944. The tropical night was Stalin-why, it makes him disobeyed him, Captain Charles beginning to come down. To seem like our own. Abra- Staff were still guiding the battle hospital in Delhi and then seni

to Russhon

told was

of Win- one

the brass-hats from ham Lincoln," side even from inid-Atlantic. Each a special plane to Imphal,

ban Matron McGeary, Bale's day they thrashed out details of bring back

reconnais G.11.Q, waited to see what was but Overlord, the coming invasion of

the

kept pressing

going to happen. remarkable Scots woman sance,

"AU right,

then, Michael," the France. A day was given over who hud

indefatigably his C.O. to let him visit 60

landing to South-East Asia and Wingate nursed the

"off Chindits after

He sald Orde grounds again.

Wingate, spoke long and eloquently. The first Burma campaign.

by Colonel R. T. Smith. Chiefs of Staff were taken with

It was mainly owing to her

and skill

whe 11 o'clock on faithfulness

that time

the Sunday morning, and the Wingate survived.

operction's H-hour was than seven hours away.

him.

For Orde and Lorna Wingate be Quebec Conference was an interlude of almost unhoped for serenity, after the strains and

Jungle columns

E had had no opportunity of H telling her he

was in Eng- with land, and she was staying her parents near Aberdeen.

It was one of those occasions which the Prime Minister loved, of showing, as is perhaps only possible in wartime, what power

to major is possessed by the arbiter of a nation's destiny. He rang for General had come through, to

10 tary and explained Win- gether with a second bar to his Kale's

stresses of the months before.

promotion

His

his problem. An hour later D.S.O.

At 6 o'clock on the morning of August 6, Wingate wns still in

Mrs Wingate was greeted at her Wingate was a very different home in Aberdeen by a couple character from the hysterical of polleemen who told her to major who had crawled back in pack on overnight bag and put disgrace from Cairo in 1941. her into their car.

And to make his happiness complete he learned just before returning to India that he was af He plunged into a bout work on his return. In London had already met he

the Colonel American,

Philip Cochran, who was to command

the air side of the operation.

his baggy tropical uniform when be stepped from the special train at Waverley Station, Edinburgh, In the fresh clarity of a Scottish dawe, Lorna Wingate, until now ignorant of why she was there, sudklenly saw him..

to become father.

the

She lay in bed, fighting the A

battle with typhoid, he learned through friends that a plot was foot cancel the Chindit operation,

At last 11 Was decided that the campaign should go ahead, though it was no longer the grandioce opera tion Wingate had planned,

Fourteen thousand men were

to be set down on three landing grounds, one called "Piccadilly".

another called "Broadway,

there and

also an was strip emergency,

at Chow- ringhee. All were 250 miles behind the Japanese in Burma. First gliders carrying Infantry would land and signal back

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ชวน

SO SUNNY

"There has been a mistake, comrade. No admittance."...

Coming out of an open-als bullet performance of "Don

My first day in Moscow 1 Culote" in Moscow's Park of

For this was Soviet Navy Week, and everywhere were huge posters glorifying Red sub- marines and battleships,

paid a courtesy call on the Culture and Rest the other night the censor Foreign Ministry and met with I paused to admire the splendid. "Plense, sir,"

my singing of a Russian Navy choir. said, "we do not welcome so sunny a reception that finally took off in a B26 piloted go. And remember, in quiet-the comparison, After all, hopes momentarily rose,

I was urged to make sugges- and confidence shall be Lincoln' was assassinated!" The Hess

tions for articles, and when I your strength."

did so they seemed to be enter- The gilder descent on Brond-

iained as reasonable.. Amanz way began an hour or so bgtore

them was that I should visit the midnight.

House of the Journalists, which is what the Moscow newanen call their club.

cas

Both pilot and photographer gasped with dismay when they Faw the Piccadilly clearing.

been

New experience OR Orde Wingate it was the first experience of what it was like to be a high commander headquarters, instead of, as had happened before, A Aghting commander in the field.

Cochran recalls the scene.

HEADACHES

YES, it's a hard row to hoe

"Picase write this in a letter," said the Foreign Office officiat,

"and we shall takb stepe.”

of

ho

1 am

Կե perhaps? I eagerly

:

But my enjoyment was chilled my eye fell on the long line of propaganda posiers villtying and ridiculing the West.

Incitement campaign hatred of Britain and America There were

small streaks

for us newsmen here,

is not dead yet by a long shot.

Highspot of the visit: across it wherever they could

That little interchange over

sitting having a chat with Lon- sce. They took the plane in

Now, before 1, break it to you don's Lord Mayor, Sir Seymour lower, and then saw that hun-

in eGneva between Krush-

how that one wound up, I must Howard, in his suite in the posh dreds of great logs had

"He kept combing his beard, chey and Eisenhower, for tell of an hilarious scene over Sovietskaya Hotel, and he asks placed over the clearing. There all the time he hunched over

drink. was one clear space, but here the radio set. He had a special instance the headaches that at the Egyptian Embassy when if I would like

they were celebrating Egypt's there were signs of excavation, way of combing the wet locks has meant !

national day.

accept, because Western drinics Whiches or mining, which could mean either so that they curled upwards

The usual gay, throng of pre completely unobtainable into his mouth. He and sprang

and. You recall that Krush diplomats

wives had here, and I suppose the Lord By this time it was late after chewed them as he kept saying:

brought some gin tipped Ike off that gathered for the usual Moscow Mayor noon and the operation would "Why doesn't Calvert report?"

with him. soon be under way, and it was At 4 am, on the morning of Marshal Zhukov's daughter party.

However, he rings the bell, March

report

But this was, a party with a did vital that the news of the new

6. Calvert

big difference. As the eyes of and when the waitress appears Pment

should

reach He sent a single word over his was being married in Mos..

link and then immedicow just then. Naturally we the arriving guests fell on IT he says, as though it were the before the gliders took radio otherwise disaster faced closed down. The single wanted to know more about their glances widened, their most natural thing in the world,

Two gins-and-tonies, please... faced, ately

times, it. When would the wed- fingers curved with Involun- plenty of tran word, repeated. three

and they The photographs were flown WRE

"Sovalink, Soudlink, ding be? Where? Could wie tary acquistiveness,

The waitress's jaw drops, she to sidle over towards IT started Wingate. When he saw. Sovalink."

mutters something and with- then his eyes glowed with It was the operation's code- meet Medemoiselle Zhukova? with elaborate unconcern.

pause, and then For IT was a huge platter or draws. bananas. And Moscow

off.

to

anger.

I..

thought I said no word for Disaster. reconnaissance,” he shouted.

took these pletures?

"Who

"He did,"

replied Cochran,

pointing at Russhon, "becauso

he had a hunch, and he was

WORLD COPYRIGHT

Next week:

CODE WORD: "SOYALINK"

W

Anywhere else in the world-but not in Russia.

I bombarded the Press section with of the Foreign Ministry

has

11

banana in the besno interpreter op-

today is regarded in pears and asks just what was roughly the same way as it was it the distinguished visitor was in Britain in 1945,

I could requesting?

Gin and tonic, we repeat.' hardly keep a straight face as

But it was about the same thing as ordering vodka in an Aberdeen pub on a Saturday night. We finally settled for a battle of Georgian red wine.

PSST! WANT A PYTHON ?

- AMANDA

MARSHALL thinks women are

far too conventional in their choice of pets. They should take a tip from men...

NY day now I to hear the whisper in

TV has

popularised

| phenomena-tiled adies

expect rodents, and the rest of us con- urgent tinue to Oxford and the corgispecially

make do with the poodle, the dachshund, the peke

two tonal in and Men are

exotic animals. Everyone turous.

its

For Audrey Hepburn — ✡ kingfisher and an antelope

་ ་

THE ALIBI

,

I find it hard ever to imagine Lilli Palmer again without her Siamese-familiar. Byewacket, who appears sleekly every night in Bell, Book and Candle. And Potor Brook's wife, Natasha Parry, an actress as the AND now about that request ♫ of mine to visit the House haired, pale-skinned and deli of the Journalists. When I was cately beautiful as a princess in here last year the Russians used Persian miniature, quite to dream up some glorious alibis clearly should owns she does when, for any reason they didn't two Siamese called Miauless want you to go somewhere, But and Minouche

the favourite reason of all was that

the place was "being re paired."

So week after I had put in my letter of request the phone "my friend" with rings and it's the dead vodoo from the Foreign Ministry.

"Meester MacColl," he begins. we regret that it is not being possible for you to visit the House of the Journalists, be

Street: "Lady I Want a coati- honoured by Royal patronage. mundi just like David And, of course, there is still the Attenborough'a?"

Siamese cat group generally in- A mon- tellectually and artistically dis- goose? How about a nice tinguished though I already little baby python going foresee the day when cheap? Just like on

the Abyssinian, memoirs, the elegant rival.

A Cure for Serpents, will zucceed to favour.

I'd like all famous people to telly?"

kept u pet lioness who loved him

the right animal, Women

are far too conven- so extravagantly that she would own exactly their choice of pets, nip the nylons from the legs of like a signature. I'd like to pro

unsuspecting female guests who sent a handsome dancing bear much more

adven might possibly be competing for to Orson Welles; a friendly black

attention.

panther to Ava Gardner; a knows that the English have always worshipped the horse.

Lucian Freud used to travel on the Underground with a hawk Sometimes It seems that the white cat with blue eyes or a Our national figures aren't really

puma kitten to Diane Cilento; "Don't tell me," I broke in. Nelson and the Iron Duke, but that looked curiously like him right owner finds just exactly

an antelope and a kingfisher to "Let me guess. Because it's Brumas. Orlando, Black Beauty, sitter with Mr Freud and a very companion.

and Ived amicably in a bed- the right sort

of animal Audrey Hepburn; two doves to being repaired?" Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger.

After Sir Winston's Claire Bloom; six white peacocks

"Yes," he replied. "But how much smaller, caged bird. T. H. poodle Rufus left Downing

are you knowing this?" And ever since our homes were While, the author, once devoted Street, it seemed only right and a heraldic leopard to Dame invaded by Michaela Denis with his entire waking life to training that another poodle Lady Edith Sitwell; a team of salukia leopards in her lap, Poter Scott a goshawk, used to recite Mac- with birds, George Cansdale with beth to it, and nearly reduced small, sharp-toothed furry himself and the bird to a stole creatures of varying shapes and of mutual nervous prostration. Rizes, and even

Disney turned

his attention to seals, beavers- and desert scorpions, I've ox- pected this pictorial, mania for strange peta to become domestic reality.

Eden's-—should move in to pre- to Dietrich; a mastift and a serve continuity, Charles Creed's awan to Garbo; and to Somerset neatly tailored spruce corgi

just the sort of dog to accom- Maugham,

true tortoise, pany gentleman of elegance.'

More originality, more dash

1

very old wise

cause"

The most beautifully P.S.

section of pavod

Moscow, with the most sparkling now It is perfectly natural that that's what women pet-lovers stretch of roadway, is just out- side the Yugoslav Embamy. Cyril Connolly always had a Peter Ustinov, most English of nord. After all, the the world The Russians started frantic own a large, can order anything in work on it the day after it was sack, Russians, should passion for lemurs, thoon delicate creatures that may yet bumbling, friendly sort of dog from the roo department in a far we seem all too become extinct. And the Duke called Colonel Margot Fonteyn, London store. Since A Kid for announced that Tita, will visi willing to stick to old loves. of Pirojno, who worked as a always elegantly groomed, Two Farthings I'm surprised them. Children go on doting on pocket- doctor in Africa and has just obviously ought to collect cats, they haven't been overwhelmed

by orders for upicorns, able, disturbingly family-minded published

fascinating and does-chipa ones.

But so

his

He isn't omcialýý ''

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1