1955-11-19 — Page 7

THE CHINA MAIL SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1955.

MORE HALF-FORGOTTEN ́HEROES WERE THE MEN WHO FLEW THE

Gladiators Of Lesjaskog

B

Y the time the alr- cruft carrier Glorious salled from Scotland April

Un

23, 1940, Hitler's Operation "Weserubung." the invasion of Norway, WILK in full swing.

Snow showers were whip- carrier's the ping across bitterly cold decks when two force,

frozen

flights of nine Gladiators, l led by Sqdn.-Ldr, Donaldson and Ft.-Lt. Kan- dolph Mills, took off at 5 p.m. and headed for a frozen Jake called Lesjaskog, near Anndalsnes,

run

-By-

DUDLEY POPE

as it levelled out for a bombing

But the smoke from the shot with the Gladiators still

up, to start a bombing down Heinkel had not cleared attack started; machine-gunning songion before another

und by the time the Germans John which was to Inst until dusk.

had flown away ten Gladiatory destroyed. Four of P.O. Philip Purdy was sitting had been in the cockpit of his Gladiator them had never taken off since Donaldson arriving. while Sqdn-Lar

Three it started. tried to got

Lomb Hells were overhead. A bo bur beside the plane and sel It ablaze. Purdy got out of the cockpit with his hands and face y badly burned, but he refused medial aid and helped other pilots to start up.

later

A few days earlær Sqn.-Læde, Whitey Stinight had beets seni to the area to Bod an Bir-step, The countryside was wild, laced with high mountains and to. The only passide valleys fal site the mulch fin was Lesjaskog and that with overest with two feet of soft gow,

Within two hairs of strivint Ja t saliretext 200 ple from loved hondets and set ther to work clearing a runway

mwo

Jamanada

after

PO

FTER A

a

target and, with

nearly exhausted, the airfield to find another bunch of bombers attacking.

their petrol The four Gladiators tried to returned to tackle them, but the Germans climbed to 25,000 fect-loo high for the British fighters, who had used up all their oxygen.

and on So the day passed. the next, Apell 27, there was no petrol left and no serviceable circraft at Selnemmoen.

Both Gladiators went straight in, getting & Heinkel almost in mediately. Donaldson shot ckwn another by himself and Mills downed a third two minutes later.

Keeping an anxious watch on their fuel gauges, they tackled a total of oight Ho.kila and Ju.889 before the attack ended.

Mills' "Chindiator, almost out of fuel, came in to land, met more Juels and was hit several umes and bullets, connum shells by One of the guns was put out of action and a strut and the top of a cylinder were shot away. With vil gushing out all over the place Mills then tried to collide with

Ju68.

Almost immediately his engłow

Wert

N

No. 203 Squadron the 28th the remnants of ordered to embark in the steam- er Dellus and return to Britain. They had flown 40 sorties, al- tacked 37 airemri, shot down six confirmed and claimed eight further victims whose end was unconfirmed.

brief few minutes eat and ho was just able to machine-gunned for eight hours,

force-land at the end of the

sent, three He, 311s approscit-

lake

to nee bis nireraft de-

bomb.

A 14-15 minties Crong-Adani was hit by spin- Daldson and Mills work- streyed by

He

od on their averaft helped by the This was much wounded Purdy.

had Donaldson, meanwhile, landed on a small airfield at Sel Besoen. It was high time that 283 Squadron left the lake, be and nidered, and he ordered the remaining planes and equipment

Itanidiph Mills took off de b a deserted 111 chine-gun to be brought ovE,

phit the kamening. Lad

try from another boib. unds dressert got him w

a vicious attack that Donaldson aged t

bis engine going

ordered evermare to take cover; and took off on patrol.

Milla and Partiy

sprinted and was still but 9 am,

stumbled sigh snowdrifts 10- 1mbs and machlue. War

and there for the next 36 pet de yards away,

Mills

Rith grabbed

arkl harrtf the Heinkels

on the bombers 45 opend fre ast Junkies

to prevent them Purdy fed in the bells. The sight making a straight bombing run, of tracer straining up from the he attacked mix of take scenari be discvantage the All they then and shot one Javior

inuke off their banshers, they # The-

accumulator been com

Comandreted attack

This

Telor tour, Donalsong

18 astiatur, dev1) Jake.

ha

LAST

Wes

11-

ther

ฟ

Kel

date

Ever

Three Gluskaters mediately refuelled by

(There were no petrol bowserst and became duty

Was

roid waning system pilots had

to sit In the cockpita wasting

in the bitte cel to lake

זו

Immediately enemy ahcraft were Bighted.

The situation that night was depassing zero temperature, only vew armourer to holt after 72

1105 batteric for the

self-starters, few methanies, and to warg syskon.

Pilots hand to help guard the pluses during the might ent

4,71. The next day, April 25, when die fist patil of thure adrerit was due to take vit, all the planes were completely Im mobilsa, carburellors and cơn- trols led up. wheels froze tu the surface of the lake

Plots and mechanics struggled

TWI

UVET

24

Five Gladiators, all that were lett d the 18 which arrived in Neway

ho's just cartier, few in to Soincamoen,

Next day. Apell 20, began with two Gladiator Bring off vi pain. I. P.-O Craig-Adwns' en- gne froze up; he baled out sur-

1720 thero andersstully. Molla

were

13011 back to their four.

the vngines

gui

enabled 17s and some of the Gladindtors managed to Donaldson to strowd. At noon the Ger- plane

18 CA envy P.0

Sydney McNamara hot thown an He.111 and

WIAM

and

.t

Blasteri Thes

.. hal:

An hour putrolled +4

without spotting

.

At 10 am, the Heinkels carne

again

started ch tmbing ullack which fasted 44 un dusk.

After Voing bombed and the Delius arrived back in Scape

Flow on May 1. Doraldson was

subsequently awarded the D.5.0. and Mills, McNamara and Purdy the D.F.C.

lote No. 203 Squachon, with new Gladiators, returned to Nor- way a few days later. When the country fell to the Germans the Gindlabors which had survived camo back alourd the Glorious. But the carrier was unk on June

Donaldson, Mc- and NAMED

and Purdy Wert frowned.

9

(COPYRIGHT)

•

NEXT SATURDAY:

The Generals Went In Kayaks

CONTINUING: ROUND the WORLD with a DISHCLOTH

HERE are over 600 board andi crew on

T

they are more of a mixed lot than one might expect. My friends vary from those who have been inside prison

to one

who has spent most of his monastery inside a years and now sings Italian operu.

away until the nine-cylindered The Merchant Navy

Mercury Ofer

IX

The

has Pilot เ Bentley's Gladiator been described to me as con- rumbled into life. He took off. sisting of four types: those

The time was 4.45 am,

who love the sea and regard

זייי

Almost immediately he found

a vinkel 115 Lbing a railway it as a definite living; draft-

slation and dived on 11, opening dodgers; lunatics: and men

dre with his four machine-guns escaping from

017

their wives.

TATTOOED I'M A

SAILOR NOW..

It happened in Honolulu, and they tell me:

You'll be sorry

By Daniel Farson

The

rear gunner's liberally-There is certainly the com- and he pointed under the bunk.

all went aprayot trueer

mon bond that most of us It's in the Bentley's hond. Hu reported

"I then broke away to Jater!

are coming away from some thing, be it family, law or avoid a mountain....'

one's own conscience. I heur un all sorts of stories.

BY

Oferr

Uus Lime I' Hughes had also managuá get his engine going and

is

in Gladiator

14)

to brought

ite Bred one long burst atlock and the Hemkel dived towards the muntams, leaving a smoke trall.

thick

They unded back at the lake Just before two He.llla roared

down between the mountains and dropped two sticks of bombs

CT the "runway. The time was 5

row over a rasher of bucon which one accused the other of stealing from his plate. in silence

he suitcase, and

"Nervously 1 looked over his bout down to open li. shoulder. He took out a large

"There.'

They were so angry they re- I looked at box.

to each other him in surprise. The ashes, be fused to speak

of the day. 'Didn't for the rest I stared at him. said.

the

The slept

Bedroom you know my wife died Just stience continued. They "Honest," sald

you didn't in the same cabin, they worked Steward to me, "it's absolutely before

He looked at the black together, but they never spoke true, it happened just after the think?

'Good God! he gave a to each other for the whole cight war. One of my passengers bail trunk.

and a half months the trip even travelled on the ship before and laugh. we knew each other quite well. One evening, when I was turn- ing down his bed, he came into and I could see al the cabi once he was in a bad state.

He hesitated

and

war.'"

Less bizarre and more cred- ible was a story tuld me by one

WAS

seemed slarved of affection, The trouble was

hardly I could understand a word he said in his thick Glaswegian accent,

and

I usually gathered that come disaster had befallen him" was ashore last night and ever 50 drunk and My friends carried me back and my money was stolen and I feel terrible and could I have some pine. which he рго- apple juice?"

ounced "pain-apel"

When we were in Auckland I ended up at a dance and soon there was a mournful "huilo" beside me, It was the Ittie laundry boy, and he said some- lding simply could not grasp. "I'm awfully sorry," I said, Just cannot understand you."

Impatiently

He repeated It and it sounded ke "Anm gooing ta sloop the night at soom froond's hoose," wmen i obviously couldn't have been for we sailed at midnight.

"Oh patiently, yes, yes," I said im-

No. My wife died naturally tally took, When they slepped She had ashore they went their separate cremated. Wi asked, Drese last few years, for ways, never to meet again.

I like this stary because of her ashes to be senttered at se

I have near the spot where we believe the rusher of bacon. our son was drowned In the found that food frequently pro- to vokes the

most gentle men Anger

One of the craziest things I 'Ot of the deckhands. He used to have ever done occurred on our

and said that man be on tankera,

ashore with Den, + plate- during the first week everyoneum visit to Honolulu, I went the and washer, who friendly extremely

comes from tnikative. Then arguments 1ste of Sheppey.

Den hus D furious Caffe started and the gloomy realisa- one knew where

here tattooed on his left shoulder and tion that no

going or for how they were

he decided to have mother

Later I wondered what long settled heavily on the ship. todos de nd of the evening

There were two friends who

I decided to have one earth he'd been trying to say. I tattoo. had been inseparable on shore SEL

too. We didn't have much

learned the next morning when I and had joined together. About

was told he had jumped ship. call, so we settled for a small

It was He really had said that. 10 days out they had a violent money and the ship was about to

fish Some mad impulse

in his duced as to have it on our hands. way of saying goodbye for

Bver and

ali I had answered was, found the tattoo extremely "Oh, yes, yes, yes," painful, flinching shamelessly, much to Den's disgust. But that was nothing to what I've suffered since.

1 wonder if you'd do me a Kreat

lavour he asked, course, sir," I said. The hesitated. It's a great deal to But the Germans were by now ask and it's a strange request well aware that the British hod

I want you to bury my wife.'

The Bedroom Steward paused. a squadron of planes operating German Lesjaskug and from

"You can imagine how I felt," pilota

being he said. "But I could tell the briefed....

man was serious and it didn't The real vuble started #t seem By if he'd been drinking. I black trunk 7.34 ... and Lake Lesjaskog noticed the large

No,' The soon & frozen hell

In the corner of the cabin. was Heinkels and Junkers arrived in s the mun, it's not there,

were

already

The Queen Of Pickpockets

the

on

me

Looking back on it, I'm glad I didn't understand him for I would have urged him to stay on board and might have been Marked for life wrong. Maybe he has found By RITCHIE MCEWEN

a home and people who are fond Throughout the day I hear the of him and a new life. I hope "Oh yes, your honour, it must

same comments: "You're marked 80. Vienna, walets and handbags in a cup-

place to Walter is another bell-boy BUTC choose." QIXTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD board in her bedroom instead of have been something like that for life," "What a

"You'll regret this as of character. For a short time throwing them away led to her Of course I can't say for

see, I'm quito long as you live." The only ex- he worked with me in the fruit- Maria Zawodsky was final undoing and conviction on because, you

uneducated and carmot count." recently cited in court by circumstantial evidence,

A large white hondkerchief, un ception was someone who said locker and used to tell the Vienna CID (with reluc- Morin's favourite huning observant boy, and a chance that people with tattoos were about his home in which he had

most macabre pride. រង្វ the fant but genuine admiration) grounds were processions of all meeting with a Vienria dete especially prone to epilepsy.

am intrigued to. tattoos on other

The photo There people, 18 the "Queen of pick- kinds, crowded railway stations tivo going on holiday at

station rang up

of cruci

"You know the sawn-off shot- pockets". The title comes at rush hours and funerals, railway

Inst

in are a large number of act curtain

the on

ixion DECALLS

the chest; gun murder case?” he asked, as something of a finale to Especially funerals,

several tombstones

nes "In Memory "Yes," Maria's career for the frail, It was her remarkable skill Maria's story.

The detective, wallding along seve

Brother": 1 night- "Well, you know the man shot and method of operation which white-haired, light-fingered

hend of Queen himself after killing the earned her the. title of "Queen the platform at one of Vienna's of My

man?" old-lally, neatly dressed in of pickpockets for Maris never matnline stations to catch his watchman

"Yes," the deepest mourning, and faced her victim when at work. holiday train, happened to spot Victoria which he had tattooed Having in 1808 when he was a young the crowd. Maria In

to marine in Portsmouth; and "And you rentember, the photo wearing a ince cap and long It was her invariable practice

an eye, on the "Queen" deckhand has the large letters in the Sunday paper of the black mittens, has been gen- to go to work with her hands secured a seat, he decided

BEHIND HER BACK,

feat keep

until the train departed. Sud-EM perey across his stomach, policeman who found the body?" tenced to six years' "rigor which is claimed to be unique, da small boy cried out: But nobody else has a tattoo on

"Well, their

ot the hands,

lives at ho However, f sup- "Look daddy, that lady is car-

bend of ous imprisonment". If she

pose I can cover it up with plas- our strect.!!

Or: rying your handkerchief

You - remember A kŽLO aurvives this treatment, the

ter whets 1, go out to smart din-

woman who sold her babies?" fallen queen will be sent to a

drop it ner parties. Before Maria could

#Yos." EX found it saved time home, for recalcitrants for

the crowd, Admitting to a lifetime of or vanish in

detective who

to say yes.] the rest of her life.

crime, Maria told the judge she watching had been picking pockets for 60 noticed nothing--had

Although she has spent 27 years as her life, behind bars,

your

the

had

reachet!

has

D

A nice lad

I feel guilty over one incident.

her glide." Maria was boy: la was a nico Ind and the man who

When Asked how much her daily:

the

handloorchief had always asking to do" things for,

Wo-

"She lives in the next house I conceths a Scotch laundry but one and you heard of

obviously lonely. The Queen of pleispockets was earnings" might have been, found to have the boy's father's

He was little girl. an off with the When we left Sydney I asked nover once caught red-handed, Mari calmly replied: "Ten

folded up neatly with theme would like something Walter if he had had good though the police frequently set pounds if I worked a full day. trape for her, and over loopt a Astonished, the judge ex-

Just why he was

Beerste werk for a drive and stopped at 3hour watch on her move ploded but thate more than Holding the handioproller in hord, did I want my clothes time, "Oh, year" he said. G He never mentioned anyone that, cliff where sil. idome people 23,500 a day Unbalovable hand was not revealed in court.

you stole that No doubt be slows down all back home, and, I had the feel wous killed

manner, of

ing that no ope.Lezlated.

imental for weeks at a time,,*

"Only her one great weakness Are you sure for koeping easily, identifiable : muschi?”.

He

NCOOPYRIGHT)-

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