Evening star., 1941-11-16
By RALPH INGERSOLL.

going around the world. so seeing
the low green hills of England
seemed like coming home.
1t was Just after noon. We had
left Gibraltar before dawn in the
American Consolidated Ply, which
the British call Catalina. 1t is a
big flying boat with long, sweeping
graceful lines and back of and below
the wings on either side there is
huge glass bhSter-big enough to
hold two machine guns and a gun
ner, big enough for the average man
to stand full height in and even
take few steps, walking suspended
over the sea, clear of the airplane
From it, you can look back on the
airplane itself through the glass,
seeing it suspended in air, flying
alongside you, its high tail riding
against the sky like a mast of ship,
its wings floating on the horizon.
I stood bent in the aft end of this
aerial greenhouse, looking past the
two machine guns and gunner Sit
ting bundled in his flying clothes.
I looked up the Channel to the green
hills that so many men have died
to defend. The water OF the Chan
mel was blue with little WhltecapS
on it. the curving shore line was
clear in the sunlight.
Channel a British Strait.
There was no question who owned
the Channel that morning. There
was quite a big convoy almost di-
rectly below us. Two of its ships
were towing balloons, and the silver
tops of them were shining III the
sun. There were 20 or 80 ships in
the convoy, and no naval craft
seemed to be guarding them. Every
now and then you could see the
Hurricanes circling above the bal
loonS-only every now and then,
because the dark blue of their wings
kept disappearing into the dark blue
of the sea below them, making them
invisible, Just as it was supposed
to do. Over the Scilly Isles one of
the Hurricanes had risen out of the
sea like a tiny flying fish. 1t swept
almost 5000 feet straight up at us
until it was so close that when 1t
rolled lazily over on its side, you
could study the way its wheels were
tucked into its belly. 1t came and
went in a symphony of motion and
to watch it from the glass blister
was to understand flight for the first
time. its movement was so free and
so effortless. 1t went back into the
sea the way it had come, melting
into invisibility.
We went up the Channel past the
first convoy. We saw another and
then another. Over each there was
the magic of the Hurricanes, with
the deep blue wings, appearing, dis
appearing. coming as If out OF the
sea and returning into it.
The green hills beyond the blue
sea became greener. indescribably
lovely in the afternoon light. The
Englishmen whom had seen fight
ing in the desert had to remember
these hills. always. because if they
forgot them for a moment, it would
seem too unreal to them-risking
their lives and killing men to cap
ture sand dune.
Men Who Hate Sand.
The men in England did not have
to think of the green hills because
the green hills were all around them.
What was harder, for the men in
England. was to think about the
sand in the desert so far away.
remember thinking these things,
looking down on the coast of South
ern England. over the Channel that
belonged again to England. I won-
dered how an EngGshman in Eng
land could feel any other place. 1t
was so very beautiful then in the
early fall. I do not know why these
thoughts came to me except that IN
Egypt I had seen so much sand and
so many men who hated 1t, and Eng
land was so green.
After we landed, we took a bob
bing little sport plane from the coast
I'D to London, flying through the
sunset few hundred feet above the
tops of the green hills, looking down
on men plowing and walking along
the road. peering into the twisted
streets of little villages, invading
the privacy of cool gardens behind
hedgeroWs.
To come over England again from
the deserts of the world, was a
sharply thrilling thing to do. All
kinds Of sensations lifted me. l
felt I was almost home. This was
the familiar corner where I turned
down the lane that led to my own
land. This was not foreign. This
was friendly and familiar. I would
know every turn of the road the rest
Of the way.
A Stone Set in Silver Sea.
In London I had friends. People
I knew we'll and loved. This was
where I had felt many things deeply
a wear before. A year before this
land and my friends had been in
danger. Now I had passed through
their sentries over the sea and l
felt secure, as if I were inside
very strong walls. It had been
three months since I felt secure
not a long time, but long enough.
The smoke rose over London from
q sea of housetops, copper and
bronze in the sunset light. I had
flown over many, many cities, but
none SO big and so strong and so
solid as this. None was so we'll built.
There was no end to it in the sunset
light. And each little piece you
looked at was so we'll made, SO
carefully made, so clean and neat
and good. This great city in this
green land. We came through the
smoke and circled to land.
I was very happy.
1t was getting back to England
that made me so happy. I was in
England just long enough to SEE
most of the people knew best, tc
revisit the places and scenes that
had had the most significance fol
me a year before. Yet. that after
noon, coming into England, was the
last time I was to be happy there
Everything I saw, everyone
talked with in England in 1941, dis
tressed me.
What had happened in the l.