1939-43 STARS MAY BE HELD UP (Daily Express 5th August 1943)
Issue of North Africa and 1939-43 Stars may be delayed until Parliament has debated the proposal.
Some MPs object to the exclusion of AA gunners, test pilots, bomb disposal squads and others on dangerous work, not classed as ‘operational’.
46-50 PLAN TO BE DROPPED? (Daily Express 5th August 1943)
The proposal to call up women from ages 46 to 50 is under reconsideration and may be abandoned, at least for the present.
Mr Bevin is to be asked by Sir Herbert Williams at the next sitting of the Commons for an undertaking that no action will be taken until Parliament has debated the plan.
DISGUISED NAZIS FLEE TO EIRE (Daily Express 4th June 1945)
Four German privates, it can be revealed today, recently disguised themselves as
American soldiers and travelled 700 miles from a prisoner-of-war cage in France to England, Scotland, Ulster and Dublin.
They presented themselves to Herr Eduard Hempel, German Minister in Eire, at his Dublin Legation. That was a month before V.E. Day- before Hempel closed the Legation and became ex-Minister.
Reinforced military and Royal Ulster Constabulary patrols are now watching the Ulster-Eireann border to see that no other Germans slip through.
The four Wehrmacht men were in a big American prisoner-of-war cage, so their absence was not noticed.
They stole American uniforms and obtained forged leave papers. These enabled them to board a Service craft for England at a French embarkation port. All spoke English with an American accent.
More forged papers enabled them to get to Ulster from Stranraer, Scotland.
In civilian clothes, obtained “somewhere in Belfast”, the final leg of their journey was completed by rail to Dublin.
Disciplinary action has been taken following the escapes but it is thought that other Germans may have escaped from detention during the confusion of the mass surrender.
An Ulster Border Security official said “If four German privates managed to get away as they did, there is every possibility of German high-ups trying the same trick”.
A double check is being made by specially selected civilian and military security officers on the three Belfast-Dublin trains that stop at Goraghwood daily for a routine Customs search.
Armed patrols are keeping watch on secondary roads and country lanes which lead into Eire.
NERVES IN BATTLE (Daily Express 5th August 1943)
Major J.P. McGuiness, Leicester Nerve Specialist, has been appointed psychiatrist to the 50th (Northumbrian) Division, the first to be attached to a British fighting unit.
U BOAT CREW MAY BE ‘PIRATES’ (Daily Express 29th May 1945)
The Admiralty is to decide whether the crew of the scuttled U Boat, U963, who are now on their way to Britain, should be accused of piracy.
The submarine was not on the surface on 20th May 1945 when it approached the Portuguese coast and was scuttled by its crew. To clear themselves, the crew must establish that they knew nothing of Admiral Doenitz’s instructions.
Captain Wentz, U963’s commander and his second in command, were flown to Britain. The crew of 47 are going in three cargo ships.
SPENT £350 ON HIS HOME, FINED £60 (Daily Express 29th May 1945)
Thomas Barnish, 34, of Bury Road, Rochdale, Lancs was fined £60 and £14 costs at Rochdale yesterday for carrying out work exceeding £100 at his home, contrary to Defence Regulations.
“Considerable work of a luxury character” was stated to have cost £350.
SENTENCED GERMAN ADMITS ‘FAIR TRIAL’ (Daily Express 29th May 1945)
From British Second Army HQ (Monday). Peter Luhr, 60 year old German farmer, was sentenced by the Allied Military Court here today to 5 years imprisonment for unlawfully possessing firearms.
Luhr, who admitted that he had hidden 2 shotguns and a rifle said “I was afraid of disturbances among Polish and Russian workers”.
Asked if he had a fair hearing, Luhr replied “Yes”.
SUBMARINES NEED YOUR PLAYING CARDS (Sunday Dispatch 26th December 1943)
Submarines put out to sea for Christmas without playing cards.
The submarine Service, more than any other, mixes boredom with danger, and the men want cards and poker dice for the long watch below.
The Sunday Dispatch suggests that the Lords of the Admiralty should ensure that packs are available for the Service.
In the meantime, readers are asked to send card packs to the Sunday Dispatch, marking their parcels “Cards for Submarines”. They will be sent on.
TWO GIRLS FOILED HOLD UP BY ARMED BANDITS (Sunday Dispatch 26th December 1943)
An armed bandit walked into the bedroom of Miss Delina Walker, young peacetime actress and now manageress of a NAAFI canteen in Scotland, at 2.30 in the morning.
At the point of a revolver, he demanded the key of the canteen safe. She said to him “You’ll get no key from me” picked up a bottle and hit the burglar with it.
The man recovered, called his co-bandits and holding the girl up, searched for the key and found it. Miss Walker heard a shot, called to her assistant, Miss Peggy Hyslop and together they ran barefoot for help.
Yesterday it was announced that Miss Walker and Miss Hyslop had been awarded gallantry bracelets and cheques by NAAFI for “outstanding bravery in attempting to prevent a burglary at the canteen by armed men”.
NAZI FLIER MAKES NEW PRISON BREAK (Daily Express 4th August 1943)
Lieutenant Peter Krug has made his second escape from a Canadian prison camp.
In his first getaway, last year, he was aided by a Detroit man, Max Stephan, who was jailed for life.
SOLDIER ACCUSES CO-OP (Daily Express 21st December 1943)
Guildford and District Co-Operative Society pleaded guilty and were fined £5 at Guildford, Surrey, yesterday for selling a child’s celluloid doll to a soldier’s wife for 19s 6d which exceeded the maximum price.
Mr J.S. Blacklock, prosecuting for the Board of Trade, said that the price was 1s 6d too much.
The complaint was made by Private Anning who told the Prices Regulation Committee, in a letter, that the doll his wife had bought was marked MADE IN JAPAN.
He said that a doll of the material and size would cost about 2s 11d before the war and it appeared to be a pre war toy.
“When it comes to a soldier’s wife being fleeced in that manner”, the letter concluded, “I think it is time to put a stop to it”.
Mr R.C. Hodgins, for the Society, said there was no intention to fleece soldiers’ wives or anybody else.
The extent of the ‘fleecing’ was 1s 6d and the mistake was due to their Furniture manager misreading a circular issued by the Co-Operative Union.
HEATING IN SHELTERS (Cambridge Daily News 9th September 1940)
At a Birmingham Inquest today on a man who was found dead outside a public air raid shelter, which contained a watchman’s brazier, the Coroner warned the public of the danger of improvising heating in shelters without expert supervision.
Dr. J.M. Webster, who carried out the post mortem, said death was due to heart failure and the conditions in the shelter probably accounted, in some measure, for his condition.
The Coroner asked “What is your opinion of placing braziers, as a means of heating, in a public shelter?”
Dr Webster replied “I think it is a proceeding which is attended with the very gravest of risks on account of the fumes”.
AUTHOR CHARGED OVER ALLEGED REFERENCE TO HITLER (Cambridge Daily News 9th September 1940)
John Gray, described as an Author, of Crowhurst, Surrey, was charged with endeavouring to cause disaffection in His Majesty’s Service.
A Sergeant of the Canadian Field Security Section, related a conversation in a club run by Gray, who was alleged to have said that Hitler was the greatest man that ever lived and that if Germany won, millions of British people would be satisfied to live under Hitler as he was proving the workers’ friend.
“It is a good thing no one is listening to us or I should be put in the Tower” Gray was alleged to have added.
EX WIFE KNEW (Daily Express 30th May 1945)
The woman who first identified Lord Haw Haw of Hamburg as William Joyce of Dulwich told her story last night.
She is Mrs H.K. Piercy of Waldron, Sussex. Before she divorced him, she was Mrs William Joyce. She said:
“It was in the early winter of 1939. I switched on the radio programme and I knew my former husband was speaking as soon as I heard his voice.
My elder daughter went pale”.
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