Evening star., 1941-08-28

- - trudging along
MoLemers. the clay road all
buttoned up IN the heavy khaki
work suit Of . Royal Air Force
cadet.
1t was his afternoon of from
learning how to fly and he was 60
ing In to Americas to hang around
the drugstore, take in a movie, and
maybe see the girl he had met at
a church party the week before.
He was a curly-headed boy, about
20 or 81, with red cheeks and
shy grin. He said his name was
Maurice Latham, and that he came
from a farm just outside of oxford,
England, and that he wondered how
his family was getting along, be-
cause he hadn't heard from them
since he came over with so other
English boys to train for combat
fighting.
A half-mile of silence Think
you'll like fghting?" I asked. I'm
quite sure I won't" the boy an.
swered, but I'd like another try
at it."
you've fought before, then" 7
said.
"A bit, sir"
"Where?"
an France. I was a gunner In
Fairey bomber"
As we rode along Maurice's story
came out. War was nothing new
to him.
The slash under his left eye, and
the red streak across his left hand
were souvenirs of Dunkerque. For
four days he had lived on that beach
before he was able to Chamber on
a near-swamped trawler and make
1t to the other side.
ut was pretty sticky" he ad-
mitted under my questioning.
Nothing you'd like to 60 through
again. l lost my brother there. We
were sleeping on the beach when
shrapnel got him. I helped bury
him the next day. along with two
or three thousand Others"
/ blew the horn for a mule team
up ahead. The mules took their
time getting over on the side of
the road. Maurice laughed.
"I10n't hI,rrt Az,
Is so peaceful here" Maurice told
me about the days In France before
the evacuation Of Dunkerque. Az
he talked it was hard to connect this
boyish hitch-hiker along a dusty
Georgia highway with a chap who
had been through an ordeal that
paled Dante's description of inferno.
I'VE were stationed at Saint Quen-
tin, we bombers," he said, but We
never got of the ground. We
couldn't. We had no fighters 10
protect US, and all day the German
fighters circled the airdrome, watt
ing for us to come up. They were
like the big buzzards I see around
here. Three times we tried to get
ships on the ground. and each time
they were shot down before they
reached 300 feet. Then they bombed
us out.
AT night We few to Amiens.
They bombed the hell out of us
again. We were ordered to evac-
uate. So we burned the ships, the
hangers, and all the petrol and set
out for the coast. some in lorries.
some on foot with the thousands
of refugees who crowded the roads.
The roads were Uttered with dead.
1t took me three weeks to make
Dunkerque. 1t wasn't happy spot"
I asked Maurice how many men
were on the beach when he reached
there. He said he didn't take time
to count them, but it seemed Is II
the entire British Army were pres
ent. How many were still there
when he got away after four days7
He estimated the number at 75,000.
Did the German Stukas and Mes.
serschmidts come low over the
beach?" I asked.
VERY low" he said.
How low?" I asked.
"I didn't dare look up he AM
swered.
dropped Maurice at the corner
drug store. He said he wanted to
get . banana split. "Jolliest con-
coction I've found in the States
he explained.
oxford to Americus. Dunkerque
TO banana splits.
As Maurice left me remembered
Winifred Let's poem. You know,
the one that goes: 81 saw the spires
Of oxford as was passing by. the
cold, gray spires of Oxford against
. cold, gray sky. And my heart
was with the oxford men, who went
abroad TO die"
Here's TO you, Maurice, kid. May
you have many and many more
banana splits.