The Midnight Sun - 19.10.1940, Qupperneq 2

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THE MIDNIGHT SUN
\ l'] W S
THE
MIDNIGHT SUN.
Copies of the „Midnight Sun“
may be ohtained from all F.F.I.
shops.
Contributions are invited
and should be sent to Canon
Hood T.D., S.C.F. The Editor,
B. Mess, Force H.Q.
SALUTE FROM
CONTEMPORARIES.
GENEROUS notices ,«bout
„The Midnight Sun“ have
appeared, according to reports,
in The Yorkshire Post, Tele-
grapli, Daily Express and oth-
er papers. The Yorks Evening
Post writes: — „As read by the
outsider this is a good little
news sheet, with more brains
and commonsense in the con-
tributions than you often get
in trooji newspapers. There is
an entertaining' letter which is
good reading for anybody, and
some extracts from world
news that reflect the mixed
nature of the Forces in Ice-
land, a further description of
Icelandic bird life and some
quiíe witty verse . .. . “
We may add that from 2800
to 3000 copies sell each week
at a cost of under a penny and
that no contributor receives
any payment.
CONTRIBUTIONS.
T will bjr now have been
gathered that contributions
as a rule sliould be short —
about 350 to 500 words. An in-
teresting parody of Kiplings
„If“ was received, each line of
which would have taken two
to print, so that the whole
would have filled ahout a page.
A stirring poem, „Britain,
arise“, written after the evacu-
ation of Dunkirk, would have
made at least 90 lines of print.
A distinguished unit wanted a
„corner“ — a most desirable
thing, but its contribution
would have occupied the four
corners of a page, and one
such ended: — „We are the
Alpha and Omega — the First
and the Last — the Strongest
and the Bravest“, (all with ini-
tial capitals) „and even in this
era of trouble we are still One
Big Happy Family — We Brit-
ishers who cover the four corn-
ers of the globe“ (no captal).
So keep your chins up, my
comrades, and 1*11 call again
next week“. Unfortunately he
did not.
AXIS SEEK ROOSEVELT’S
DEFEAT.
But President Forsees Greater
U.S.—U.K. Co-Operation.
The Axis Powers were inter-
ested primarily in keeping the
United States out of the wár
and in trying to minimise U.S.
help to Great Britain, declared
President Roosevelt at a recent
Press Conference when he was
asked whether he had any
reason to believe that either
Germany or Italy was work-
ing for his defeat in the forth-
coming Presidential Election.
Roosevelt read a portion of
a newspaper despatch from
Rome in tlie following terms:
„The Axis is out to defeat
Roosevelt not as a measure of
interference in the internal
policy of the United States,
but .because of the President’s
foreign policy and of every-
thing he stands for in the eyes
of the Italians and Germans.
The election is reaíised to be
of vast importance to the Axis
powers, and therefore it is
normal strategy for the Axis
to do something before Nov-
ember 5th which would some-
how have a great effect on the
electoral campaign.4
Asked regarding some doubt
in that America was giving all
aid short of war to Great Bri-
tain, the President said, that
everything was being speeded
up as much as possible. He
predicted greater co-ordin-
ation in tlie standardisation of
British and American arma-
ments, and said that Canadian
pilots who were not members
of armed forces might be train-
ed in private flying schools in
the United States this winter.
GARGE DOES HIS BIT.
One story which may help to
brighten your existence in the
darkening North.
A Czeck Doctor living in a
small village not far from
Newbury decided to walk to
Thatcham. Reaching the main
Newbury-Reading' road, he was
not sure which way to turn, so
enquired, in his best Englisli,
of an old Berkshireman, cut-
ting the roadside grass. The old
man regarded him with curi-
osity for a time and then said
„Be you British?“ The Czech
Doctor hastened to explain
who he was, and added that
he was naturalized. The old
man pondered over this for
some time, scratched his head
and finally replied „there
bain’t no Thatcham“.
From all I hear from round
about Navy, Army and Air, I
would not be in Hitler’s shoes
this winter for a great deal.
He almost has my sympathy.
(In a letter from home).
R.A.F’s MERCY ERRANDS.
Sunderland flying boats of
the R.A.F. and the Royal Aust-
ralian Air Force patrolling far
out into the Atlantic every day
escorting convoys, have been
responsible during the Iast few
months for saving nearly 500
survivors of ships sunk by the
enemy.
In their anti-submarine
search for many miles round,
„Here’s the Post Corporal“
somebody said, as a figure on
a motor bicycle appeared
through the gate with a flour-
ish that would have done cre-
dit to a „speedway ace“.
The figure with a rifle across
his back and a face of bluish-
purple from the Icelandic
summer breeze pulled his ma-
chine into its stand and peel-
ed off his „eyeshield, anti-gas“
leaving two great weals under
his eyes below a „cap, F. S.“
pulled down almost to his ears
botli sides.
„Morning“ I said, „any
mail?“ The question was more
a greeting than a request for
information. One knew the an-
swer before he even arrived.
„No, Sir; but there’s four
lmndred hags coming for the
Battalion lomorrow — I’m just
waiting for the ship now.“
I did not reply. He was quite
the most ingenuous liar in the
Battalion but he probablv re-
ally did tlnnk tliere was a huge
mail due — a sort of Post Cor-
poral’s dream with mail bags
stacked funnel-bigh. The ship
hand always „left Reykjavík
tliree days ago, Sir — can’t
understand it, Sir.“
I merely said I expected the
sliip liad gone round the wrong
way as usual and started to
walk away.
„There’s one liere for you,
Sir!“ — I turned round. Per-
states an Air Ministry commu-
nique, the planes sometimes
find lifeboats and rafts drift-
ing' helplessly out of sight of
passing ships.
The most famous of tliose
rescues was that on September
25th when 46 survivors were
picked up from the „City of
Benares", which was torpedoed
600 miles from land.
There have been many simi-
lar cases. One Sunderland
found two boat loads of peop-
le, who were suffering severe-
ly from thirst. They signalled
fhat they had food but no wat-
er, and the crew of the flying
boat dropped their own fresh
water supply and all their ciga-
rettes in a carefullv sealed
package kept afloat by life-
jackets. They then returned to
fetch a rescue ship.
♦
haps from his innermost pock-
et he would produce, like a
conjuror, that sweetest of all
sights to-the soldier in Iceland,
the odd letter with the „right“
handwriting, tlie kind of let-
tcr tliat suddenly appears for
no apparent reason days after
or before its fellow travellers
— how they get here no one
knows — they just arrive. But
I might have known it would
be in a stampless envelope —
„O.H,M.S.“. This one, however,
liad its consolations, it was one
of tliose tlirilling missives that
Orderly Room put it two en-
velopes like the old-fashioned
wooden Easter-egg, and mark-
ed „Secret“.
„Secret!“ The magic word
conjuring up in one’s mind a
hundred and one fantastic
possibilities. Would it say „A
German convoy has just an-
chored off Reykjavík“ or „The
Battalion will embark for U.K.
on Monday week“ or some-
tbing really momentous such
as, „In future Eider Duck bear-
ing Icelandic markings will be
regarded as friendly"?
Strangely, it was none of
q,ese — it consisted of one
sbeet bearing a list of all units
in Iceland and against each
unit was written a fourletter
word, each one different. It
appeared to be some new
game, perhaps something on
the „Happy Families“ line to
CODE NAMES.