Evening star., 1941-07-21
British Men o. War Outright Nozi Planes
Correspondent Watches Fleet Bottle Swarm Of Henkes
BIozinq Pom poms Bring Down Attackers OFF Crete

The ma jor of marines lent hilarity
to the chess competition, He played
his patch with an instruction book
open in front of him ard bleated
loudly when his opponent failed to
meet his moves as the book indi-
Gated they might be met. A young
lieutenant played the piano for a
bit that first evening out. He had
a professional finish which was dis
sected and examined conversational
ly by lot of critics who also had a
professional finish.
Nonchalant Before Battle.
There was considerable argument
over lot of new" books which
hao reached the Near East a year
late. There was plenty of observa-
ton about the pontifical attitude of
London newspapers on local politics.
The atmosphere of the place and
the people who filled it was bright,
intelligent, realistic, gay. Just
before the battle. mother"
There aren't many accommoda-
tions for visiting firemen on battle
ships in wartime. In Nelson's day
apparently reporters were content to
stay ashore and a jolly good idea it
was) But no matter. I got the
navigating officers cabin. He didn't
need it. he said. When at sea he
always slept up in the chart room.
He came in about 8 am. and
apologized for using his own wash
stand.
One Of the things that made this
brave new world completely fan
tastic to a newcomer from out of
the Near East command was the
frankness Of everybody. There wasn't
anything mysterious about this voy-
age. You were kept informed about
it by Donad Duck. If all was going
well Donald mingled jokes with his
announcements. If trouble was near
at hand he was serious and direct.
But you never wanted for detail.
You-as well as everybody else
aboard the ship-knew just about as
much of what was going on as the
captain did.
Anti aircraft action stations close
| up" came this raucous voice on
the third day. Aircraft presumed
( to be enemy about miles off star
board quarter. ." That was the
/ beginning of it.
Approaching Planes Detected.
/ It was a jittery Gay. that . so
/ far as the passengers were concerned.
In the world We had left you never
/ had to worry about airplanes until
/ they got around where You could
see them and the alert gave you
notice. There. by some modern ju-
| ju, the lads in the coming tower
knew all about planes that they
! couldn't see-where they were. what
direction they were going, how many
of them there were You felt some
how as if the air was crammed with
all sorts of evil influences A lot of
the gun crews seemed to feel that,
too. for throughout the long after
noon they were seldom away from
their posts.
Maybe the planes are only
shadows" Mr.. Hartin said. He
had been out with the feet before
and was acquainted with shadows
They're really scout planes" he
said But I could never tell you
what good they are. They try to
pick up the fleet. and when they
do they fly along the horizon to find
out where it is going. They have
TO carry an extra load of gas and
because of that they aren't very
heavily armed. Once our observers
spot them they are as good as gone
I don't think any of them ever get
| back to their home ports-the rec
ord is just about 100 per cent. After
a while you get to feel little sorry
for them. . ="
Peaceful Night Until
But these planes weren't ''shad-
ows." In the first place there were
too many of them. In the second
place their movements as reported
by Donald Duck from time to time
were too erratic. One might judge
that while the feet was aware of
them they were not yet aware of
the feet. Late in the afternoon
they went away somewhere. We
proceeded with little or no worry
about them for Crete.
You didn't have TO look at the
chart to realize that this was a
dangerous Understanding big
targets around on this part of the
blue ocean-hourly we were getting
closer to Tripoli. where the Ger
mans had established new bases and
to the boot of Italy whence various
annoyances had been wont to come
in the days of Balbo. We slipped
fortunately. into fog that hid the
cliffs where Icarus had conducted
his experiment in aviation. We
rode about at reduced speed while
the convoy went up and the visit
ing troops went up to the cave of
the Minotaur to await the Germans
We turned about for home some
time after Sunet. 1t was peaceful
night with no Interruptions until
In the morning at about o'clock.
| Donald Duck broke out with ''wakee
wakee! wakee! ivo! ivo! ivo! stack
and etpun-tt uasn't until q t0nc