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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1943-01-28, Page 3Iy w RIDE A COCK HORSE TO BANBURY CROSS Shocks For Britons. Corning This Year More Britons expect to get their matching orders soon. Not all will march to the front but there will be more of them at war work on the home front. Forecasters predict 1043 will be full of shocks for the whole nae tion from 'teen-agers to pension- ers. The aim is to throw the war effort into even higher gear and brim; in enough new workers to release enough fighting -age men to replace expected casualties. The government is reported considering registration of men up to 55 and women up to 50 for industrial work. The conscription age for girls may be lowered to include 19 - years -old or even those a year younger. Drastic concentration programs are under way for luxury and non essential industries. ' .m.:e::Ne... nk •.. MM, naKa*+"c..i....v,s {. .. .,;?"N Right out of Mother Goose is this little girl in London, who rides her pony Pixie wherever she goes. She is Claire Cotton, daughter of a Brazilian consulate official. Britain Replaces Aircraft Carriers Strength of Royal Navy Greater Than in 1939. A. V. Alexander, first lord of the Admiralty, declared that "al- though we have had heavy losses in aircraft carriers, we have more now than we bad at the begin- ning of the war after replacing our josses." Britain has announced the loss :Of friive aircraft carriers, the Ark Royal, Courageous, Hermes and Eagle. Shite the start of the war she has completed the Indomitable, Formidable, Victorious, and Illus- trious — and, from Alexander's stfstement, apparently- also has added the new Indefatigable and ]implacable to 'the fleet. Jane'a igiting Ships listed then as aeheduled for completion in 1942. This would indicate a total of seven, the only pre-war carrier remaining unsunk'being the Furi- ous. Alexander told a Sheffield audience last September 20 that the Royal Navy's capital ship, carrier and cruiser losses of the -"Ittet";':t eo' and a half yeah; bad been replaced. "We have had in the last three or four months very heavy attacks by U-boats," Alexander said "and we have taken a very heavy toll of the enemy. Casualties In War Under 1914-18 Toll Huns Use Rockets To Start Bombers Take -Off With Blazing Rock- ets ockets a Terrifying Sight .A. British aircraft authority said rockets are used at the take- off of the German Junkers 88 medium bombers to give quick acceleration. Writing in the annual review issue of "Iron Age," steel trade journal, C. G. Grey, well known in the British aviation field, said such rocket -propelled starts have been used for two years. Grey quoted an escaped Neth- erlands flyer as saying that "few things are more terrifying than to see a heavily loaded bomber full of bombs and gasoline tak- ing off at night with a huge rocket blazing under each wing and knowing that if one engine' cuts the whole thing Will turn over and go up in one burst of flame." Fired Electrically The author also reported that rockets are being used in another way by the Russians. He said two or three rocket bombs for ground attack are carried under each wing of the new Stormovik bomber -fighter. The bombs are carried on rails instead of normal bomb racks. They are fired elec- trically and are given their direc- tion by sliding along the rails. This, he added, with their rocket propulsion, carries them more nearly in a straight line with the course of the 'plane than if they were ordinary bombs. Catapulting Hurricanes Grey said that the big, four - engine Focke - Wulf Furriers, which have been harrying Atlantic convoys, start their trips from a big airdrome near Bordeaux, in the south of France. They fly out around Ireland, up to Ice- land and thence to Norway, where they have a runway some- thing. over two utiles long, from which they take off and fly on the reverse course. To combat the Kueriers, Grey said, Britain has been catapulting Hurricanes from the decks of big merchant ships. If a Hurricane alighted on the water, however, it invariably turned over on its nose and killed or drowned the pilot, so the pilots took to bailing out with their parachutes after shoot- ing down or chasing off the enemy. In spite of the fact that each such engagement meant the loss of a Hurricane, the method has stopped Rimier depredations, Grey German Losses in Russia Perhaps 4,000,000 In All A despatch from London says Reuter's military correspondent has estimated that "the United Nations—not including China — enter 1943 with armies totalling approximately 15,000,000 men." In addition, he said, "Allied air personnel is approaching the 5,•• 000,000 mark." "probably The German army, p ' y 8,000,000 men at its peak, has suffered heavily in casualties in Russia, losing perhaps 4,000,000 in all," the correspondent (Teeter- ed. Japan, be said, "is reported to. have an effective army of from 5,000,000 to 6,000,000." Now, in case some of the younger people may have the idea that the last war was, by coin•• parison, a minor affair, let us have some figures of that as well. In the War of 1914-18, the Al- lied and Associated Powers (in- cluding the United States) mobi- lized a total of approximately 40,- 000,000 tnen. The Central :Powers (Germany and her allies) mobilized 19,500,- 000 men, or a•grand total of just under 60,000,000 men. The total casualties of the war were, these: Dead, '7,781,806; Wounded, 18,- 681,257; Prisoners or Missing, 7,080,580, or total casualties of mors than thirty-three millions.. Some people are inclined to doubt figures of casualties on the Eastern Front in this war,' hold- ing them to be "fantastic." They are not necessarily inaccurate or exaggerated when one remembers the casualties of the last war. Up to this hour 'our own Canadian. casualties have been comparative- ly slight on land. SCOUTING ... Of special interest to Canada's Boy Scouts, who have become leaders in the field of war sal- vage, is the fact that Charles Le,. ferle, Canada's director of Sal- vage, is a4former Boy. Scout. Mr. Leferle belonged to a Troop on famed and much bombed Malta, and was one of the contingent of Scouts representing the island at the coronation of Bing George Vr and Queen Mary in 1911.. * Toronto's newest Boy Scout Troop, the 201st, is about as cos- mopolitan as it would be. possible to find a Troop. The 'troop is sponsored by the Xiwanis Boys' Clubs and the Scoutmaster is P. F. Harris. This little league of nations has a membership of 28 boys divided among the following races and nationalities: Finnish, Jewish, French-Canadian; Polish, Negro, Russian, Ukrainian and Anglo-Saxon. Thus Boy Scouts again illustrate the true meaning of world brotherhood. . - * *, Boy Scouts of Granby, Que., have ,an enviable record in the field of enlistments in the armed services. The Troop was organ- ized in November 1927, and since that date has enrolled 232 boys. Of this number 53 are in the Troop today, while 103 former members are in the armed forces. Incidentally Granby has one of the largest. enrollments of Scouts in proportion to boy population in the Dominion of Canada. . The Mayor of Hendon, a bor- ough of London, :had the :ratheia odd experience of swearing an oath of allegiance to the Ding twice in one day. On the day on which he assumed office as Mayor he took the oath, and later on the same day was enrolled as a Boy Scout and in the course of the ceremony repeated the oath. LIFE'E LIKE THAT said. VOICE o F it I.1 13 PRESS NICKEL NICKNAME Canada's second issue of the - twelve -sided nickel is Made, like' its predecessor, of a combination of zinc and copper. The change in material probably demands a new name' for the coin, and any day now, someone is likely to pop up with the suggestion of "zop- pert, --Windsor Star —0— • SOME SLIDE! A yoting .Russian aviator parted from bis plane at 20,000 feet or thereabouts. His parachute failed "'to open, but in falling he hit and slid down the side of a snow-cov- ered hill or . mountain and came to a stop, breathless but un- scathed, in a snow bank at the bottom of the hill. —Winnipeg Free Press —0— EDUCATION . A. well educated boy should know how to—sell things, make things, run machines, milk cows, drive horses, plow, keep books, repair anything, read between the lines, shake hands as if he meant it, keep smiling, be "from Mis- souri", earn money—save it. —London Free Press. —0— A PLACE TO SAVE The U. S. War Production Board is urging everyone to con- serve matches. It is estimated that people in North America strike more than 500,000,000,000 match- es a year and thereby use up 70,- 000,000 0;000,000 board feet of lumber and 60 tons of steel —Stratford Beacon -Herald _0_ SHAKESPEARE'S OUT • The Germans have ordered all. of Shakespeare's works to be pulped. Before the war they ac- claimed him as a true Aryan dramatist, but now, as' a humorist puts it, they've discovered he isn't 'realty Hitlerature. —London Answers THE WR • WEEK Commentary on Current Events Dirom*' Fires Over Berlin Favi To Foil R. A. F. Pilots Newsmen chosen by lot were allowed to ride British planes bombing Berlin on the night of Jan. 16 for the first time on an. offensive flight from' Britain. ak Tames lrlacDonald, Times correspondent, represented the United States newsmen and in the following "dispatch tells of the extremely heavy attack on Hitler's Capital: I was a passenger aboard one of the planes comprising the large force that battered the German Capital. 1 saw a great uumbe] of 4,000 -pound high -explosive bombs and thousands of incendiaries blasting buildings right and left, and starting widespread fires remi- niscent of some of the big German raids we have gone through in London. The plane to which I was .as- signed as a passenger was man- ned by a crew of seven. One by one, the giant bombers roared away into the thickening dusk. Minutes passed. Still more. planes heavily loaded with high explosives and incendiaries went away while we waited. —0— BRIDE'S PROBLEM Life gets more and more com- plicated. Brides used to be told that all they had to do was feed the brute, but now they have to give him nutrition. —Toronto Saturday Night ---o— WHEN DIMES WERE DIMES Sure your great-grandpappy could bay an unrationed sirloin steak for a dime—ancl every now and then he had a dime. —Detroit News —o— YOUTH IS OLD HABIT With some women, staying young is an old habit. Kitchener Record The British Arnay has a speeial- ly-built incinerator for destroy - ..sing secret papers. Not even the ashes remain. By Fred Neher "Nothing in the rule book says 1 can't!„ . "A right Guess" Bliley and Curley of the Anzacs .eeeesce ease' is. ..... is 'GNAT You. i'i14 tAT STTCkW' IN PIE. ZAACK SLUE publications: Dummy fires lit try, Germans on bogus landing fields, imitation freight yards, and flimsy structures disguised as important buildings. 'These fires on the out- skirt of.,Berlin were intended to make the raiding airmen think they were over the City and drop bombs on them, only to have them. fall harmlessly in open fields, We ignored thorn. Found Target It was only a mome.rt or two later when I saw the real thing. Waves of raiders that had taken off before us back in 13ritsii bad found the target and dropped their loads and made way for us new arrivals. Below and slightly to the right of pre were several straight strings of lights going like street lamps. These strings, which seem- ed to crisscross one another at right angles, were caused by in- cendiaries that had just burst. Looking .down, I was fascinated as the white lights of fresh in- cendiaries turned to yellow and then red, when suddenly there was a blinding flash, a great cone of light with its point on the ground, and its eves• -widening base reach- ing to the sky. Some "kite" had released a 4,000 -pound bomb. We were flying at too great a height to hear what must have been a colossal explosion. Immediately after the big bomb, numerous small fires merged into one great seething caldron in which the skeletons of some build- ings were clearly distinguishable. The fires were so bright they par- tially illuminated the bomb aiin- er's compartment, silhouetting our bomb aimer as he poised himself over his instruments ready to alai. Presently it was our turn to bomb. Up to this moment, we had 'been zigzagging, diving, climbing and twisting our way through the enemy's frantic antiaircraft fire. Now we leveled off in straight course directly across the target area. In the middle of it, the big Lancaster leaped upward like a surprised animal. We had releaaed our two -ton bomb. We tore on across the conflagration below and none of us saw our bomb burst, but crews in the follow'' -ng planes did. e Shells Burst Close By Again we circled for position to run across the target from an- ther direction and drop intend- iaries. As we started this second "run,," I heard above the dint of our motors three dull thuds dir- ectly underneath us, thuds like heavy weights were being dropped on padded floors. 'Three anti c t craft shells had come uncomfort- ably incomfortably close, bursting in fragments some of which scratched the un- derparts of our plane, but did not do any appreciable damage or harm anyone. Having eompleted the second "run," the Skipper said over the intercom to the bomb aimer: • • "Johnny, there's one fire coram: +*+ there that seems to be dying down. Let's start it up again." Once again we took aim and streaked across that steadily grow- ing blaze. "Bombs gone," announced John- ny when Kwe had got across. „Okay," said. the Skipper. Signal To Go Faintly from the control room Dame the voice of the WAAF— Women's Auxiliary Air Force — giving us our signal to go. Our four motors, which had been idling all this time, burst into a thunderous roar. Slowly we began to move. We had to take the full length of the runway be- fore we were airborne because we were carrying one 4,000 -pound bomb and a very big cargo of in- cendiaries. In a matter of seconds, the air- field had disappeared from view. Soon we were out over the sea and had started a long climb to high. altitude. As we neared 10,000 feet, "Skipper" said to me over his intercommunication, "Would you mind going forward into the bomb aimer's compartment in the nose and connecting up your ox- ygen xygen supply pipe?" Somehow I :uanaged to get into the nose of the plane and sat on the floor and let the forward gun- ner connect my nose -mouth mask with the oxygen supply. There wasn't any monotony, at least for me, in that overwater leg of the fight. I was fascinated with the "intercom" conversation of the crew. Five Minutes from Coast Then in a pause in which there was complete silence, I heard the voice 0Y " Warrant Officer Clayton saying impersonally, "We're now five minutes away- from the coast- line of enemy -occupied territory."' I could -feel the 'alertness of everyone aboard. Then soon after that, Clayton informed us we were well over enemy territory. By this time, night had closed in but there was a bright moon in the sky and vis- • ability was good. My unpracticed eyes couldn't spot anything un- toward even when I heard the forward gunner sing out, "Enemy night fighter off to starboard." Lying on my stomach and peer- ing through the plane's nose, I finally saw a tiny black speck moving through the sky. Sudden- ly that big Lancaster flipped far over on its side and did a steep, almost vertical dive for what seemed like a thousand feet, then leveled off. We bad taken advan- tage of some cloud below us to hide from our would -be -attacker. When you're carrying a two -ton bomb and lois of incendiaries, it is not wilt= to risk being hit by an enemy plate's incendiary bullets. Ninety Miles From Target Preseutla I heard once; again she. ;l \'Dal"'' ,lx Je ton saying. el ,r .•t• now 90 Tones from the target." Hardly were the words out of his meat than ground .tanners began see.iine shells up at us, splitting the sky with jagged flashes of light as they ,•:.',':onto. Either their aim was poor or "Skipper's" piloting was excel- lent. They didn`t come near en- ough for us to hear the explosions above the noise of our motors. "'lou are now nearing the tar- get," said Clayton. Then 1 saw a sight 1 bad heard Alcohol is being obtatnt,d Lam about from many of my RAF b ri snee ha a n01l prosess n I,'ree"li friends and read about in some Guaira. U -Boats Repaired At 'Floating Bases' The Berlin Radio sa,;s the Ger- mans are using 'tanker submar- ines," which are able to "rel'. el and repair U-boats "everywhere in the operations area..' Thee -floating bases,"' '.e Reale seise tem operate er tte as e1i en'tly oriels i va:ei as on the s+ '- .farce, and t , •t:i, i ,es along meth the erait they ere refueling qtr rel lriu; i'i hue ale earees tee. psoaele ""aha (ic:nu n tinker is iee - ines." it was added. "l, ta t. built hi i.;erntai shi iyni':1:+ in ever-inereaeng numbers daring 11412, mei have: been en plo:'ed in various operations area, iia meantime." �_.__ By Gurney (Aaist ahia) Na'i DWG- f I WAS Sp15T WAITIhi. Fol. YO LI 'To S.N.PLOi11r ,A* ett 1 b esee AaVet d"