Evening star., 1942-08-05

ny manu- anu run OIL dllGl CulI It" (
at the risk of imprisonment or
death. More effective and natur-
ally much better produced are the |
millions of copies of miniature
newspapers written in a dozen Ian
guages and printed and produced
IN England. The RAF delivers
them
The group of midget newspapers
carried regularly by the bomber
command includes LIE Courier de
L Air in French. La Libre Belgique
in Flemish, Vrii Nederland in
Dutch and Die Luftpost in Ger
man. Well informed and we'll illus
trated and set in good clear type,
these papers print about 10000
words OF news on a tiny sheet which.
rolled into a cylinder, would pass
AS cigarette. The standard size
is four pages, 8 inches by 5, with
three columns to the page.
Papers Have Own Staffs.
Each little paper has its own
staff of men and women writers.
some of them internationally IA
nous. There is no fixed publishing
day. After a lull in bombing opera
tions several editions may be car
ried in a single expedition.
Printed on modern higsl-speed
rotary presses. they are automati-
cally folded and counted and packed
into bricks" of 500 They are
taken to the RAF bomber stations
throughout Britain, where they are
loaded in the big Lancasters, Stirl-
lngs or Halifaxes. Then they are
flown to France, Holland, Belgium
and Germany, where they are re-
leased through flare shoots in the
bomber floors.
DR.. Goebbels greatly dislikes these
papers, and a year ago he was offer
ing zoo marks to any informer who
would reveal the names of Germans
who take home and keep the Luft-
post which is being dropped over
our country by the RAF" In Belgi-
um the German authorities at
Client published an announcement
saying people often collect news
papers and leaflets dropped by for
elgn planes and pass them on to
friends. The occupying power will
punish severely those found in pos
session Of such newspapers or
leaflets"
Many civilians have already paid
the penalty for detection, vet in
hundreds of European cellars, barns
sheds and even in buildings COM
mandeered by the invader the
printing of anti-Nazi PAMPHLETS
still goes on. For every pamphleteer
seized by the Gestapo another patri-
OF takes his or her place, and an
other printing outfit and highly
organized distributing group come
INTO action. But apart from the
danger this work presents there
Is the handicap caused by lack of
materials. Paper and ink are hard
TO get, and the Gestapo sees to it
that no unauthorized sales of sta
tionery take place.
Value Grows Steadily.
The value of the miniature news
papers taken over by the Raj grows
steadily. These not only help to
solve the difficulties of local publ-
cation, but they carry hope. guild
ance and comfort to millions of
patriots who are prevented from
listening to the foreign broadcasts
from Great Britain.
These miniature papers are verv
different from the amateurish tracts
dropped by the RAF early in the
war. Those documents were not
only 1ndifferently worded and edit
ed, but were also dropped so mac
curately that many of them never
reached the people for whom they
were intended. I recollect a case
when Dover was plastered with
leaflets written in German and in
tended for the forces occupying
invasion" ports in Northern France.
Ihey had been dropped by the
Raj across the channel, caught
In westerly wind and blown back
right across the Straits of Dover.
During the earlier leafet raids Hol-
land, Belgium and Norway, which
were then neutral were sometimes
CODED with leaflets which were
meant for Germany
Now, however, the Raj has made
leaf1et dropping an exact science
Accurate release Is governed by
such factors as height. distance and
the strength and direction of the
wind, and the papers leave the
bomber in the form OF bricks"
and do not begin to scatter until
they have reached their target
! areas
Midget newspapers dropped by
the RAF in Northern Italy and
Germany have been found on pris-
oners taken in Libya and on the
Russian front. One young Reichs-
wehr corporal told his captors he
had smuggled home an almost COM
plete file OF the Luftpost, and that
ne found 1t a refreshing change
from the Volkische Beobachter.