1940-04-30 — Page 23

Lakmary, Suprome

Court

Tuesday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

April 30, 1940.

ANKLE

MAGAZINE

BLACK SEA

Rumania, controlling Danubian outlet to Black Sea, and disturbed by rumours of revived Russian claims to Bessarabia, watches Sovitt Turkish mancatyres fearfully.

HUNGARY

"ONIAN SEA

Bugrad

-SLAVIA

ania

PAGE

How BRITAIN is MEETING

the MENACE of the MINES

IT was pitch dark on the wharf tho minesweeping trawlers were moored.

The wharf was slippery with ice and still smelt of fish. But instead of barrels of cod. liver oll, all the paraphernalia of minesweeping, and buoys and sinkers and coils of wire, were heaped up under the sheds,

Looking eastward from the 'deck- of one of these trawlers, I saw the dawn coming through a cobweb of shrouds and ratlines that glistened with hear frost. The trawlers basin were packed together in the like sheep in a pen, and the smoke from their funnels rolled away in Booty black clouds, What sounds. there were raine from below shovels scraping on the stokehold plates, and the clang of a furnace door. Presently on unfamiliar ob-

NEWS REEL

Odessa: Russia's Black

Sea naval air base and most important pert for

export of petroleum to Far Eastern Soviet army

RUMANA

Turkey resists Russian pressure bo [close Dardanelles(already refortified by Turks) to foreign warships, wishes for treaty securing relations with Russia yet compatible with Anglo-French commitment

U.

S

R.

UKRAPIA E

Tiraspor

Odessa

Rostov R. Don

-Krasnodor

Bucharest

BULGARIA

Varno

BL

Constanti

Ankara

Trebizond

SREE

AEGEAN SEA

MEDITERRANEAN.

"Italy works to form neutral-

Balkan bloc under Italian influence, withdraws troops from Greek-Albanian frontier to reassure Greece

No longer can Turkey be dis

missed lightly as “The Sick Man of Europe." Ta-day, powerful and as united as any Power in Europe, she holds u key position in the fateful game power politics.

of

But this key position has dan. gers as well as advantages, and certain of the dangers are seen in the delays in the negotiations now taking place in Moscow between M. Sarallu, the Turkish Forel~n Minister, and M. Molotov, the Soviet Prime Minister..

one

Why is the Black Sen (over 700 miles long and nearly 400 miles wide) so important to Russia? The map above shows the factors which help to keep this inland sea of the most Important strategical points in Europe.

First, Russia must guard those vital lines of communication be- tween her two ports, Odessa and Batum, and the Mediterranean, the Danube and the Far East. Once loose in the Black Sen, for- eign submarines could do untold damage to Russian shipping, and warships with the aid of aircraft could possibly destroy the Baku oil fielda behind Batum.

But such ships could only pass Into the Black Sea through the narrow, 40-mlle channel of the Dardanelles, which joins the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

And the guns of Turkey do minate the Dardanelles.

Smyrna

Adalia

SYRI

Dodecanese Islands, ceded to italy by Turkey by Treaty of Lausanne, 1923, formi naval-air base for potential operations in Near East, but are vulnerable to Turkish attack.

4

But Turkey, watching and countering the southward drive of the German-Italian axis, needs Anglo-French backing, and the price of that backing is the open- ing of the Black Sea to the Anglo- French fleets in time of war.. That to Turkey's dilemma.

Stavropol

Tiflis

Transcau

IRAQ

Dotted line across Black Sea shows quickest route for Soviet oil from Batum to Germany- via Danube. Hence Soviet anxiety to keep Black Sea neutral.

ROOKIES, 'SHUN!

by Will Shebbeare

T-MO And in the nick of O-MORROW I go to join the

time there arrives for review a shilling booklet "full of advice and hints for young soldiers."

I say "In the nick of time" be- gouse I understand from this book- le! that my fellow-soldiers wi talk a language of their own. And how without this booklet I could have understood a word of what they will be saying I cannot for the life of me tell.

Quite à large part of this booklet is taken up with a dictionary of this language. There are entries in it like:

Flying trapeze Cheese. Corp

D.A.

A

.Forin of fomillar

address to friendly corporal. .Damn all. Self-

explanatory

Dckho

.Look. Gaspirator ....Gas mask. F.B.I.

Infantry's The

name for itself. Money. ALL manner of advice for the A timid recruit is crammed into. thego 08 pages. It will take some living up to:

Sugar

"The army hates a stacker or a slammock."

"Do not choose a bed next to the N.C.O. or the stove-both these

·positions - sometimes become source of jealousy.".

B

"Trust your officer and It uny trouble should arise and you have

reasonable explanation by all cans give it. If you have none, own up like a man."

"A fatigue lasts but for a day but at any rate provides a change from the monotony of parade duties."

"Certainly in ordinary elvilian life you would not be able to de- vole as much time and attention to such games and athletics In general as you can now."

"Wear two pairs of socks." "Leave sick parade alone as for as possible."

THE

THERE is some extremely helpful advice about how to recognise an officer in the blackout:-

"You inust be guided by his hearing, for it is fact that the possession of the King's Commis- slon gives a certain air or swagger readily distinguishable by the army

man.

"There may be two brothers, one a gorgeous Sergeant-Major and the other humble Second-Lieutenant, but there is still some subtle differ- Shall we sby one has the ence. 'spil' and the other the 'polish"? CERIOUSLY, this book, Soldiers

in Training, by Soldierman (Frederick Warna and Co.), is really very helpful. I feel re- asured by having read it, and the thousands of other young soldiers who will be called up this week with me, will find it worth buying. All the same, I shall burn it be- fore I set off for the barracks. I were seen there with such a book

I should be ragged unmercifully,

lect in the stern caught my eye and in a minute or two when the light grew stronger I saw what it was. Right aft, where normally the enslyn staff stepped, was E Christmas tree.

الية

I felt that it was, symbolic of something, apart from being a ro- minder of recent festivity, and while. I was, ruminating about it. the siren tooted three times and

we began to elbow our way stern first out of the fum. We were the first out and as we gilded clear the skipper of the adjoining trawler a few feet away grinned at us. We were going to spend the day to- gether, his little ship and ours, yoked together by a magnetic sweep in a fairway where mag- netle mines were suspected to be lying.

☆ ☆ ☆ GERMAN mines are roughly of two types. The magnetle mine which lies on the bottom, and the moored impact mine.

The mag netic mine doesn't require to be struck to detonate. it explodes when a ship passes into its mag-

field, netic

Counter incasures against this type of mine conslat in substituting a magnet for a ship and trailing it over the mine be-

are hoping

rather

ed match stalks above all forms of , nourishment.

on UR

WHEN we came to the end of our beat the lieutenant jerked the stren lanyard and the other trawler alowed down, eased her helm aver and round wa cume. She kept perfect stalion

all day. There was no signalling exert the tool on the siren at the turn. The Group Leader jerked his hend at our sister trawler and made the

each remark

iune sunc steadled on the course. 'Yon's a good lad!' he said.

wo

We passed the day yarning. The men stood huddled on the fer side of the upper deck smoking and watching the sea. They were all and shermen from Stornoway Peterhead, Hartlepool, Shields, Crimsby, Lowestoft. They had no Illusions

about their job. The ek before week

trawler had gone wet

up and there was one survivor. Of the rest and the ship not a trace was found. They saw it happen. - Yet they were undismayed; soft- spoken, gentle-mannered men, just carrying on with their job, it is dimeult supremely effelent, to put into words what England owes them.

ween two trawlers, both of which the magnet, rather thanently that they, wit do the

delonating. The impact mine is moored to the bottom by a sinker

showed up against length of wire. It is and detonated by a ship striking one

of the horns projecting from it. I will describe presently the counter measures employed against these mines.

It was daylight when we reached the open sen. A groy day with a wind out of the north-east as sharp and cruel as broken glass. The little trawlers lifted their heels to the swell and threw the spray over their shoulders. Occasionally a wave hopped inboard and sluiced across, the deck. Everybody wrig- gled to fe-bells and led the tapes very carefully, without com- ment.

The skipper had spent the last war, minesweeping. Thirty- Ave years, he had spent in trawlers, fishing and minesweeping. Не was a bald, clean-shaven man,

husky na crow, and had a secret contempt for Admiralty charts. He confided to me that the sound- ings were mostly wrong inside the 40-fathom line. He was the type that I imagine finds his way about fishing banks by smelling the and some mysterious sixth sense. He confided many things to me On our way to the sweeping

the

lend.

grounds: amongst others that he had eaten an entire bottle of cough lozenges during the night. They failed to re his business, he sald and made him feel very queer.

WELL, we reached the channel at length and slowed down. Our companion sweeper canie plunging up on our quarter and we veered & gruss line to her which she pick- ed up, and shackled a wire to It. This we hauled inboard, connected it to our sweep wire and paid it out astern again. As the wire was paid out, various contraptions were shackled to it at intervals and Anally the two trawlers started off abeam of each other, the submerg- sweep towing between them.

ed

it all sounds very simple und straight-forward as I have aescrib- ed it. Actually it wi

it was a

magnin- cent bit of co-ordinate team work and

The seamanship.

trawlers and rolled and the ley pitches! and spray drifted over them. The man at the winch,

with a

a bright-blue balaclava helmet on his head and a cigarette in the corner of his mouth, controlled the wire miracu- lously, checking it to a foot when

ไป it was necessary to

shackle on soine appendage. He had the lives of everybody on that heaving deck In his hands, over and over again,. scores of times during the day. The mate working on the shackles with

a marlin-spike had bare hands scarred all over with old gashes and streaked with blood from new ones. Once the spike slipped or was jerked

from his numb Angers and went overboard, Somebody handed him another; he put out his hand for it automatical- ly, In silence. There were scarce- ly any orders except in the cus- tomary undertones. Nobody got in anybody's way or was at a loss in any emergency. There are times when a wire can behave like a mad python and be rather more dangerous. Every man on deck had handled wires from childhood, knew exactly what to do without being told, and did it..

Then we settled, down to sweep, I should describe the operation, from a spectator's point of view, as a rather, blood-curdling bore- dom. Up and down the channel we went, with the wailing gulis. for company. Every half-hour or 80 the cook staggered round, with mugs of tea-lot sweet ten the colour of mahogany. He pwned a small puppy which lived confiding- ly among sonbooted feet and relish-

Well, the light began to full so we hauled in our sweep and went bucketing home in the dusk. Our Christmas tree lifted against the sky at one moment and then the broken water astern. When we got in we reported the channel swept and apparently clear of mines.

Next morning I went off in a different trawler to the southward, where there was a known mine- Beld-moored impact mines, the horned variety. This fold

SVON

belig cleared by fleel sweepers lowing

are

15

what

known weeps. This is

1 cigor- arrangement with a flag on It towed from the sweeper. A board called a kite attached to the wire keeps the oropesa out on the quarter of the towing ship and the wire is weighted so that its curve intercepts the mooring wire of the mine and

and cuts It. The mine, re- leased from its sinker, then floats to the surface. Occasionally it ex- plodes in the sweep. The sweepers steam in echelon-that is to say

on euch other's quarter-with the bows the leader's oropesa flag, and so on down the line. They start at the edge of the mineheld and sweep backwards and forwards On

bacon slicer, cary- principle of

the second ship following

ing

The

off a slice of the minefeld each time. A couple of trawlers followed behind. One. drops dan buoys-buoys with tags secured to sinkers by wire--to mark the edge of the swept section. The other sinks the mines us they appear on the surface," and "picks up the buoys- when they are no longer required.

*

THAT trawler I was in was com- manded by a skipper whose father was the first mine-sweeper to put to sen in that area in the last war. The son was the first in the

pre-

sent wa

war. Our job was primarily to drop buoys along the swept edge of the mineflold astern of the -sweepers. We started in the dawn. and on hour or two later the mines began bobbing up ahead of A horned mine awash is not

Us.

53n

a pretty object. They drifted away astern of us and presently we heard our opposite number banging off at them with her Lewis gun,

the The sky cleared and shone. The cook brought round tea at intervals. At int

Intervals we dropped a buoy, and the deck was alive with

for writhing wires 21

and moment. Then a heave

the splash, and overboard went 150 lb, sinker and everybody took a long breath.

2

All day we went to and fro,

the

ΟΙ dodging

harvest

the and mooring sweepers, laying

sack over the buoys. The sun land, and as the sweepers altered course for the base, the signal lamp of the leader blinked at. us through their smoke: "Two mines bearing so and, so, sink and return to. har- bour. Well, we found when, we got there that there were three of the beatly things, and the sun was setting. Everybody grabbed a rifle. The Lewis gunner, who had been

driving a confectionery delivery

van four months ago, opened fire on the nearest mine. Provided puncture it with sufficient bullets and don't happen to hit one of the horns, A mine sinks It was like without exploding. shooting at a glass ball bobbing on a jet of water at a fair. The trawler rolled, the' mine appeared and disappeared in the waves 200 yards away. The Volunteer Re- gunner serve algnalinan and the sank the first. Then the skipper Hot his. eye in and dild some pretty shooting. The sun sank lower and mine followed disappeared.. The sult amid cheers. The last was a race against the gathering darkness. But at length it bobbed, more sluggishly. Then only one horn projected devilishly from "a wave crest. The Lowis gun fired one burst and it vanished;

one

LISLE

TURN-OVER

TOPS SOCKS

SOCKS

FOR TENNIS, BEACH AND SUMMER WEAR

LARGE, COMPREHENSIVE RANGE

JUST RECEIVED FROM AMERICA.

ELASTIC GRIP TENNIS SOCKS

In Powder Blue, Rose, Lemon, Turquoise, Tomato & Peach.

Children's sizes 7-10

$1.10 pr.

All cols. $1.50 pr.

LADIES' ANKLE SOCKS (Elastic Grip)

in Greengage, Turquoise, Copper, Clover, Mauve and Shock-In-Pink.

$1.10 par Polr.

PIQUE TENNIS

SHADES

In Pink, Powder Blue, Green and Lemon.

$1.50 each

Peter Pan

Suits

FOR WATER, BEACH & CYM,

Figure Fitted Sports Suits by Libertyland.

$1050 each

In Lagoon, Goldfish & Sea Bluc.

Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co., Ltd.

HIS MASTER'S

VOICE

TWO WORLD FAMOUS TENORS

PRESENT

A PROGRAMME OF POPULAR BALLADS

JOHN MCCORMACK

DB340-Drink to me only with thine eyes

Ah Moon of my delight. "Perslan Garden” ») $1 DB1200--Kathleen Mavourneen

Love's old sweet song

DA1342-As I sit here.

(Sanderson)

I know of two bright eyes

DA1341-Love's roses

My-moonlight. Madonnă..........(Porra)

DA310-Come where my love lies dreaming

Funiculi Funicula

RICHARD CROOKS

DB1798-Holy City

Star of Bethlehem DA1163-For you alone

Because. (d'Hardelot) DA330 Song of Songs

Ah sweet mystery of life DA1536-Bird songs al oventide

Green hills of Ireland DA1394-I love thee, (Greg)

Parted.

(Toni)

TSANG FOOK PIANO COMPANY.

MARINA HOUSE

19 QUEEN'S ROAD C.

MAIDEN VOYAGE

PHONE 24840,

FIVE DAY EXCURSION TO MANILA

EARLY MAY Leaving Hongkong.

Using the ship as your Hotel during Opernight: AT MANILA

ALSO: SECOND WEEK IN MAY THIS NEW VESSEL TO: SAN FRANCISCO, LOS ANGELES,

via.

SHANGHAI,

JAPAN,

and HONOLULU.

A fow reservations still availablo for Shanghai only NEXT VOYAGE THIRD WEEK IN JULY

Complete Information From Your Agent or: NIPPON YUSEN-KAISYA

TELEPHONE. 30291. KING'S BUILDING General Passenger Agents in the Orient for Cunard. White Star Line