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'Half dizzy, I feel myself pass under the big ship, caught in the swirl of its screw, and finally I emerge, carried by the terrible current. I have never felt such intense fear. I felt I was close to death.
*
Louis clung to an oar and then spotted the sampan some 20 metres away where all but one of his companions were aboard. The remaining man had reached the shore. He notes quaintly that he lost a treasured pen. 'I lost my Parker but kept my life after being but a thread away from losing it,' he wrote.
Japanese bombing continued and Louis concluded he had a 50 per cent chance of surviving. ‘Should there be a lightning advance by the Japanese, the worst is to be expected. This will end, no doubt, in a massacre of the Europeans, of the population.*
In his previous post, his first outside Belgium, Louis had been in Berlin, where he had met some of the Nazi leaders later to become notorious. His son Marc says he was impressed by the Nazi regime, though later changed his view.
While in Germany, Louis trained as a glider pilot at Grunau in Silesia, probably in machines launched by an elastic bungee, rather than being towed aloft. Grunau was then part of Germany and easily reached from Louis's post in Berlin and it was perhaps the greatest centre for gliding in Europe. Thousands of the machines were made there, notably in the Schneider factory, and production was supported by the German government. Today Grunau is called Jezów Sudecki and is in Poland.
When his next posting came he had no expectation that he would be able to maintain his interest in the sport in wartime China.
He describes how his secretary one day in 1940 drew his attention to an item in a newspaper saying the Chinese military had acquired two Rhônsperber gliders and were to give a public demonstration. The military pilot who flew the first went into a dive from 100 metres for unexplained reasons and was killed.
It seems that Louis did not hesitate when the authorities asked him if he would fly the remaining machine the next day. He says the
359
'Half dizzy, I feel myself pass under the big ship, caught in the swirl of its screw, and finally I emerge, carried by the terrible current. I have never felt such intense fear. I felt I was close to death.
*
Louis clung to an oar and then spotted the sampan some 20 metres away where all but one of his companions were aboard. The remaining man had reached the shore. He notes quaintly that he lost a treasured pen. 'I lost my Parker but kept my life after being but a thread away from losing it,' he wrote.
Japanese bombing continued and Louis concluded he had a 50 per cent chance of surviving. ‘Should there be a lightning advance by the Japanese, the worst is to be expected. This will end, no doubt, in a massacre of the Europeans, of the population.*
In his previous post, his first outside Belgium, Louis had been in Berlin, where he had met some of the Nazi leaders later to become notorious. His son Marc says he was impressed by the Nazi regime, though later changed his view.
While in Germany, Louis trained as a glider pilot at Grunau in Silesia, probably in machines launched by an elastic bungee, rather than being towed aloft, Grunau was then part of Germany and easily reached from Louis's post in Berlin and it was perhaps the greatest centre for gliding in Europe. Thousands of the machines were made there, notably in the Schneider factory, and production was supported by the German government. Today Grunau is called Jezów Sudecki and is in Poland.
When his next posting came he had no expectation that he would be able to maintain his interest in the sport in wartime China.
He describes how his secretary one day in 1940 drew his attention to an item in a newspaper saying the Chinese military had acquired two Rhônsperber gliders and were to give a public demonstration. The military pilot who flew the first went into a dive from 100 metres for unexplained reasons and was killed.
It seems that Louis did not hesitate when the authorities asked him if he would fly the remaining machine the next day. He says the
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