The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-12-09

Oxford accent and acquired Q ueceE
 An intelligence officer at this s for a Gremlin to perch upon the she Fortress on a mission over France, b' eonfidentially in Brooklynese:
 Hi there, feller = hold yer nrel That isn't no German fighter plane divin' down on youse from lp there. Thassa pal o yours - a Spitfirel"
 But of course 1t won't be 8 friend " British Spitfire = 1t will really be ln enemy F'ocke Wulf 190, its can non blazing. For the Gremlins are nalevont little liars, and they like nothing better than to trip up a lyer whenever they get the chance. WEAR AMERICAN CLOTHES
 A lieutenant-bombardier here says hat many of the Gremlins are wearing American-cut clothes, with ,pecial pockets for the monkey Trenches they use to damage the engines of U. s. bomberS.
 After a successful day of sabo- tage, the Gremlins are wont to gather by moonlight in the center of the airdrome and celebrate with American rye whiskey presumably offered from a post canteen). sing American barroom ballads and talk about their favorite Hollywood sweater girls. All this is done to make themselves appear as regular guys" in the eyes of the American flyers.
 The American Air Force has been slow to believe in' Grem- ins. But the R. A. F. knows them we'll It's the Gremlins who like to steed pilots into disastrous engage ments with the enemy. It's the Gremlin's who laugh eerily as avia- tors abandon their damaged planes and parachute downward into the icv waters of the English Channel. DRINK PLANES GAS
 When a fuelless plane is forced to land. that's because the GremlinS have been drinking out of the gaso- line tank. If underca1riageS jam. that's because a suicidal Gremlin las locked himself in the mechan- ism. When a bomber returning by night fails to land on the flare path out washes out" in a thorn hedge instead, the Gremlins are respon- Sible
 Some American flyers continue to scoff at GremlinS - some pretend they haven't even heard of them, But - Anybody with half an eye ;an see that they're swarming all over the place. said a sergeant navigator, indicating the vast field which lay half-cloaked in sudden mist and fog.
 When a ship is about ready for mborning takeoff, you can see the GremlnS racing across the field to nook a ride. And when it comes back in the afternoon you can see the Gremlins rhunba-ing on the wing-tips.
 And that B-17 that came back the other day with over thousand holes shot in her and her wing halt- crumbled = well, there was Grem- lin peeking out of every one ot those holes and leering. They'd steered that ship first into bed of f1ak as thick as mattress - then right on nito a stream of bullets fro ma pack of FWs. None of the other ships had Gremlins for pas sengers that day - and none of the others was hit"
 FATHER UNKNOWN"
 No one is certain who in the R A. F., created this modern-day leg end of the Gremlins. David Low famed English cartoonist, heard Of these little folk woh ride the bomb CTS under the frosty stars and made the first drawing of them. Now Wait Disney is to do film on the Grem- lins.
 In European mythology there is nothing nearer to Gremlin than the leprechaun of Ireland, the tiny shoemaker of the fairies. Ordinarily a law-abiding fellow, the leprechaun sits beneath mushroom, repairing the footgear which the fairies have turned in to him. At other times leprechaun is a creature of mis- ,hief - he sours the milk. he pla- gues farmers, he tickles the ankles of comedy colleens, he lures drunks into treacherous Irish bogs.
 That will be nice work for the Gremlins if they can get it - after the war.