The White Falcon - 18.11.1944, Page 1

Vol. VII.
ICELAND, Saturday, November 18, 1944.
No 9.
iimmiinfflw
COMMENTS FROM
THE ICELANDIC PRESS
NAZIS SHOW BARBARISM,
DISREGARD FOR NEUTRALS
MORGUNBLADID, Conaervative, leading daily!
"Almost at the city's very doorstep the heavy
blow came to this little, defenseless vessel,
its passengers and orew who were expeotedncmen-
tarily to reaoh the harbor safely, as they had
so often before...The incident itself - an att-
ack on a defenseless vessel of a small neutral
nation, the murder of -innocent people - will br-
ing home to Icelanders stillmore forcefully the
barbarism which lies at the basis of suoh per-
formances. Such lack of civilization oondemns
itself."
ALBYDUBLADID, Social Democratic daily! "The
attack of the German submarine on the Godafoss
close to our shores shows that....no thought is
given the faot that a small vessel of a neutralj
nation is here involved, with nothing aboard but
peaceful people and supplies for the nation, nor
is any attention paid to the fact of our terri-
torial waters being violated. Complete cruelty
'and lust for destruction is the highest comm-
IN SINKING OF GODAFOSS
andment of the Nazi murderers."
TfiJODVILJINN, Communist daily: ‘Vie had become
so secure, we Icelanders. We thought actually
• that the war was over as far as we were concern-
ed. The relatives of the seamen who before had
lived in fear as to their safety all the while
they were away had begun to hope that the danger
was past....It was sheer barbarism which was at
work here.Vfe know that the murderers in the Ger-
man submarine who performed this contemptible
feat are the same type of mankind as the Nazis
in Franoe, Russia and elsewhere, who burn women
and children to death in their homes.There will
be no peace and security on earth until these
butchers and their creed of Fascism are comple-
tely eliminated and assurance given that such
barbarism may never arise in the world anew."
ICELAND, A NON-BELLIGERENT NATION OF SOME 120,000 PEOPLE, REELED
UNDER THE SHOCK OF WAR’S CRUEL BARBARISM LAST WEEK-END, AS ITS LARGEST
PASSENGER VESSEL, THE 'GODAFOSS', WAS SUNK BY A NAZI TORPEDO ONLY TWO
HOURS' SAILING FROM REYKJAVIK. THE ATTACK OCCURRED IN FAXAFLOI, AND THE
SHIP WAS SUNK IN FOUR MINUTES' TIME.
Twenty-four Icelanders died, 19 were rescued. The dead Included ten
of the vessel's 12 passengers, and 17 of the 31 crew members.
Among passengers, the dead include the wife and son of a veteran of
IBC service - Captain William G. Downey, here for more than two years
with the Tenth Infantry, and now in the European Theater, after a tour
of duty back in the States. His wife, the former Ellen Wagle of Reykja-
vik, and their son, William, now three years old, had joined the cap-
tain in the U.S., but while he is at the battlefront, they were return-
ing home to Iceland to stay with her relatives. Both met death within
two hours of the anticipated reunion with her family.
In addition, the passenger roster of dead included an entire family
PVT. HARGROVE’S 1st. SGT. HEADS USO UNIT
Cast of the Chill Wills show, newest USO tr-
oupe to hit the island, are(seated) - Chill
Wills, motion picture actor (UGU); Mickie
Trout, comedienne, and (in rear, left to right)
- Taylor Trout, juggler; Lynne Arlen, vocalist;
Theresa Rudolph, dancer; and Bernie Dolen, acc-
ordianist. (Photo by Signal Corps.)
Fitting into the Tri-
poli Theater as comfor-
tably as a pair of ach-
ing GI feet into wool-
lined bedroom slippers.
Chill Wills brought his
fast-moving USO show -
"Trailing High" - to
the Rock Wednesday nig-
ht.
After opening with a
few jokes and a plug
for MGM and his role as
the 1st Sgt. in "See
Here, frivate Hargrove,"
Wills brought on Ther-
ese Rudolph, blonde dan-
cer, who shakes a "mean
hoof." Next came Bernie
Dolen, singing "Oh,
What A Beautiful korn-
(Continoca on Page J)
wiped out - Dr. Fridgeir Olason, and his wife,
Sigrun Briem, herself also anM.D., and their
little children, ranging in age frprn five
months to seven years. The young couple, pro-
minent Reykjavik residents, had both continued
graduate studies in medicine in Canada and the
United States for the past four years, and Dr.
Olason had only recently completed work for the
Ph.D. degree at Harvard Medical School.
Conflicting reports began to reach Reykjavik
Friday afternoon as to the reported torpedo at-
tack on the Godafoss. Although war-time censor-
ship restrictions conceal full details of the
event, Reykjavik papers on Saturday and Sunday
were able to tell the connected story. It was
one in which an entire nation's sorrow colored
every sentence. The anxious crowd at the docks,
waiting for survivors, fathers and mothers and
other kinsmen not knowing who aboard were dead
or alive, was touchingly described, as hundreds
stood in the rain throughout Friday evening and
Saturday's early morning hours.
Maj. Gen. William S. Key, Commanding General,
IBC, in company with Iceland's Prime Minister,
(Continued on Page 2)
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