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jsom. wxrsrsa nrsrtsnp»-mtitde-h • inis0 li-M1 ayEscape of Reporter From1Nazi Invaders Describedtonoi'l NOTE From the r*blea every da% rotne* free!* #vlbled uf Oh* mountainside. Hill andI struggled to get White to safstyansar passed hf kerolem behln dthf |W, #toared bach and ear* with bulletswhile the planeforth apra;. mgThere to Hie r«w frf Robertof Thf A«wfiitfd Pres#fO**#»|liOt1* Wf»!er*de me lostCotHfn stuff. In V«|Mlavl»put onsteam snd left ths dead and wounded behind, W# carried White to a road and hailfd an RAF truckloaded In th* woundfd and »podto Corinthtime of th# German Invasion, SI,John * tof nut with the atorj** only after eiferlenres that read like fiction. II# went to Greece andthence t« F.g pt A German air* man a marhtne run ballet wound RUf while we aped so did tha ed him. Heath from Homha aeemcd Luftwaffe As we pulled into town,near him many times, I Ftuha* divehomhed a SA-ear hot*Ft. i ot*n « story, written May R, pit at train, aeUin* lira to many1MI. la reprodared aa a teat! roaches, which toon wera a flam-monlal to W. John and to the In* pyre.u Idrooks IS cre-t In-of nderI a p-arores of AP men like him flffhtin* their own flfht the world aroundtoday—the flfht for factsThev are soldier* of THE ASSOCIATED PRESSMangled MenGeorivisiting friends Lucil Chlcag with 3 Irvin*tEllerSt , in* relElsieCMratIrvinftKlosteiJohnMrs.schoolnoonRT ROBERT FT JOHN Associated Press Foreign Ftaff ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, May Slur wiMr*.ham 1after Mrs. I Mrs. for Flt;mod*Uow-hem-i m eun a--eltcAfter traveling four weeks night and day hy almost every conceivable method of transportation. Ifinally have arrived in a “safeHiamiaun-»; Randvtllelaign)New-ughrh«-ta e tislon-i aid# negroport” with the bloody atory of the invasion and fail of Yugoslavia and the evacuation of Greece.Here are a few things which happened along the way after that gruesome dawn of Sunday. Apr 6. when Nasi homhers rained terror on sleeping Belgrade.With Russell Hill of the N ew York Herald-Trihune; Leigh While of CBS and the Oversea* New-* Agency, and Terence Atherton of th# London Dally Mall, I left Bud* va. on the Yugoslav coast. In a 2lt;V foot sardine boatMrs spenttng MreturnAH afternoon gritty volunteers carried stretcher* loaded wi t h horribly msngled men through th* streets to the little dressing station where plucky Greek girls tried to do the work of doctors- for I severs there were no doctors her# and no | retail* time to dress mere machine gun bullet wound* when men were dying by th# dotensTh# parade of wounded men onstretcher* went in one hospital I Colodoor, a parade of dead men on j Mrstretcher* cam# out through anotherWe persuaded tha RAF to lend us a truck and pressed on At Argoa ell eeemed calm at last,Th# little city had never beenbombed but before White's serious and my minor wounds could hadressed, the bom Hera caret They came in waves, with bombs of every conceivable type and rainedthem down indiscriminately.Most of the deadly missies land-for an automobile as’ the Italian \ *n or near the little hospitaloccunation fore# wai entering that filled with wounded Rritlah eolII o n-kture, •eeen-to 2d•us.*• ofrie t sis a-resen-n r yancient walled city.Hidden In PortW# set out wilh no compaes. with automobile mapa in lieu of charts, with only 12 gallons of gasoline anda gunny sack of Mack bread as our chief food supply.After a night of slow progress along a treacherous courae, w# lay hidden for a day in a little Dalmatian aeaport, which th# Italians had already occupied We were protected by native fishermen who resented th# fact that already werediets. We spent nearly 24 hourshauling cots of men who coukl not move by themeelvra in *nlt;| out ofthe hospitalbeing forced to take Italian lira AgainBuried by Bomb#Atherton and I during on# attack, were in a trench outside th#hospital when bombs landed 10feet away, burying us both underrubble. - _Then a truck loaded with oxy-gen tank* exploded, shooting flame* over th# hospital. Woundedtad to be hauled to safetyturned Mr. afamilyMarof Fhday a and NMrsturn#!afterMrand hdy TniedMitwiTeddjsooneumn Mrinie F Mrs. tend# meet! MrAuetl*mdalltnaon hi t efor anything th# occupying force wanted.As we continued, we took a60-yearing tl and ar reFpiaaa lt;HarrtaryMrMiMor*Cai-At last, we helped establish an emergency dressing elation in acellar concrete shelter and be~ cama patients ourselves. W# lay 1 ter I en fisherman to help guide out | there while men. women and chll-'for *dren with pieces of thtir bodies blown away wera carried in— some dead already, with some dy-wounded wh amed downMr Mr a.th# clouds in a combination bomb mg and only a few with more than Ftut*oquoieand machine gun attack We lay on our stomachs on ain Flt; MrFord.i c on.tha 11.Tase-a spark of life.We finally got White Into a prl three-foot square deck throu g h j Vate cllnlo with doctor* promieng homi two night#, peering over bla c k j to operate immediately. Befo r # days waters for floating death as we j pressing on. we climbed to th# top j Burlof a mountain at th# edge of th#r. Hen McDonShel-Jer-. Ed k, Ef RichMon-k 11 n.i. A 1-C1 ay,Hamll-John-Mas•ailed with full canvas through extensive mine fields in th* narrow gtiatta of OtrantoWe wiggled our boat through much of the Italian fleet hiding away near Duratio, Albania. Displayed I . R. flag W# were hailed by two armed Italian mine layer# whose crews manned thstr machine guns aa we passed cloee under their howe, hut held their fire when w# spread a blood-stained American flag out ondeck.W# war# nearly shipwrecked In a atorm on ths rocky island of Fasseno, the Gibraltar of ths Adriatic.M's had to row. soaked to th# skin, all on# atormy n.ght through mountainous waves when our two-cylinder outboard engine went I dead and high wind* mad# it impossible to hoist a sail.Finally, ws put In at Corfu juatTh tha 'MonMyrtown for two hours of rest in safety but whils wa lay watching aBertoblivious to death I Geoiand destruction around them, asquadron of Nasi troop carriers J Don began unloading parachutists in Ri the deserted v#lley on th# other |•id# of the town.We knew ther# wa# no mor# tim# to pause now.Arrested FrequentlyThat night w# plodded on foot down a highway teeming with British lorries heading for evacuation j guei port*. We were arrested frequent ly by Britieh patrols seeking to round-up the tame parachutists wa had seen drop—at least those not already shot by th# Greek#.W# turned occaslonelly to watch flashes of fir# and listen to the jfor death rattle of Argua as bombs jtownlie i. MHell•hopMtie :*dayC.TuiiM1ERE1)ously,# gov-to pro-radin g and111hardment the island had had in amonth.We persuaded Greek authorities to allow us to set out on the Ionian Sea aboard a Greek food ship. W# left juat after an air attack wrecked a destroyer lying in th#port and made a shambles of th# port authority offices and a nearby hotel.S Days and I NightsFor three nightsjustProbably our1 Pb*Mwork of moving wounded and out of danger xonea had all 11** 1 been futile We were heading for a tin y j 8an fishing village in the hope of buy-! »P91 ing, renting or stealing some kind j of small craft to maks our way to Turkish ahorse, but when we got there we found th# harbor full I *iB* of huge Btiiish craft and embark- • vllatlon about to take place.We soon save ud the small boat.Mn 1Nrstiwe dodg # d _dawn w# had beerperate | island* and pushed toward the taken in charge by the British NaGreek mainland under the cover; vy and were enrout* to safety, of darkness For thres days weirvl c eilrmsnwl 11Detailswoods ‘Centra*i meet-of ths Web-, Nole-Mr.while our 2ftMon schooner was closed It le th* story of the Britishanchored out of th# way in a cove. On#Navy's almost superhuman acda*witnerhChiLeukas, watchingcomplishment in defying combined ! dajian bombers circling over nearby Ithaca—birthplace of Ulysses. Another day w# hid on top of an re WU- J island already occupied by the o Key. j Germans in an ancient monasterywhere the monks fed us goats* cheese,, raisins, almonds and «y. then hid us until dusksave the British Expeditio nary Force so it could fight again.ITHOnly S to Get Out Th* danger of death on tha wale: was double the dangers ws hadgone through on land, but we survived them becoming as far asaMoVisO 1IPebsi3NG_________ schooner touch-' •r« *bl* to ,e*rn th* on,y , th)ed her nose to the wharf at Petraa thr9* of 14 Anglo-American news- j ca|papermen to get out of Axis-con-air raid sirens began to scream.ed Ai Cleve-: at MOI want-i result » extin-iaUress.the bedwas ig-ulled a-until it er wasIn turntiler.out oftrolledvessel and mads for shelter beneath 12-foot blocks of concrete.In these four week* w# never had our clothes off. We have had^ _______ only two or three regularbom bed' a hoopit a? ship loaded with I We have been able to throw outaui1finMiwebu5000down on bed* a few hours jTH®l we couin se«* j—-ywrought * * ■th. nlKht h.(or., Div. homb,,. had giving . b.tt.rrt .utomobll. .700 i lon« winding roada of Serbia. BoaDsvilhorefugee® war# attempting to dia-1 Montonegro^or J n * | ouflat-bottomedIonianng paper as andif smoke.howeverfterwardamattresses and bedding still lay scattered on the quay, blood soaked and torn to shreds by bullets.in dugouta from bombs.Having found communications at , we crave now only altep andthw200from that whittling ofreEDbeing taken from the hospital ship, we hid from another raid in a shelter dug out of a mounts i n side and labelled “Built with A-merlcan help Wounded In Leg We fled on from Petras towardAthens in a Greek troop tram aar• •bombs, that ratta-ta-tat of machine j ^guns, yiose screams of maimed men women and children which •till ring in our ears though there is now peace and quiet all around as at lasttetoasWELDER'S TORCH SETSdiis recent-he nswly assoc i a-Robert F,rer. andl. Della ndricksontee mem-sea Suddenly aroared along aide of the train with its two machine gun* roaring.H«u*rMhmitt OFF LEAKING GAS HEREGas lsaktng from *« Ml wellof the Halstead lease just wsst ofMdidi0the Egyptian Refinery on w #ev-tumbled to th# ground. Those of 1 snth st this morning caused aus inside sprawled on the floorblazefttlCI got one bullet in the leg and ignited by a welder** torch which White got two serious wounds in was being used nearby Fireenenthe thigh As hundred# of soldiers act am _______ __j and soontha flamsa wera under control.Ro
Newspaper Details
Centralia Evening Sentinel
Centralia, Illinois, US
Tue, Jun 03, 1941
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 18 Dec 2021
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