"HELL PASSAGE"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 125, 29 May 1942, Page 3

"HELL PASSAGE"

DASH FROM SWEDEN

NORSE GIRL STOWAWAY

(By H. J. J. SARGINT)

LONDON, April 12. There was only one girl aboard the group of Norwegian ships escaped from Sweden, which forced the German "hell passage" mine barrage. steamed past the Skaw, the northernmost point -if Denmark, and eventually reached the safetv of a British port. A 19-year-old Norwegian nurse was a stowaway on one of the ships, and she remained hidden l'or the first nine hours of the hazardous voyace. \\ hen she finally left her hiding place she told the ship's oflicors that she wanted to go to England. where her fiance was serving in the Norwegian forces. The gni now is in London, where I met her at a hostel for Norwegian refugees. She is a typical Scandinavian beauty, fair-haired and blueeyed. "1 slipped out of the hospital where I was serving.'" she said, "and pretended that 1 was going on a week-end ski-ing trip. Hut I 'ski-ied to Sweden, where eventually I readied Gothenburg and remained in hiding until 1 was able to go aboard a ship which I hail learned was going to England. 1 took some provisions with me and hid below deck, only appearing when the ship already was in the Skager-Rak. Bombed for Kight Hours '"The captain and officers were kind to me. They seemed to treat my being a stowaway as almost a joke. But it was no joke when the German bombers flew overhead, dropping bombs which appeared to miss- us by only a few feet. As it was, the ship was covered with spray, and some shrapnel splinters came on board too. Fortunately, nobody was wounded. I am unable to say how many raids were made on the ship, but one seemed to go on a whole day. I was told afterward's that it lasted eight hours. After the bombers had tried and failed to sink us, w r e were attacked by armed trawlers, who shelled us for a short time but did not score any hits."

The girl said she had not yet found her fiance, who is serving somewhere in England,»but she hopes to marrv him as soon as they meet. An officer of one of the Norwegian ships, whose name I cannot disclose, said that the ships slipped out of the Swedish harbour at night. Fog at Critical Moment "It was not until early morning that we saw any Germans," he said. "The first German ships we sighted were in a convoy sailing from Norway to Denmark. We cracked on speed, our ship eventually doing 16 knots. But soon afterward German pursuit planes overtook us and began machine-gunning our ship. zi S-zagged and escaped damage. The pursuit planes then disappeared, but they were replaced a little later by bombers, which also needed practice, although one bomb fell oniy about 20ft from the ship. This shook us up considerably and the ship hove-to for a time." Another Norwegian said a fog aided them to escape. "When the German planes appeared the ships altered course and headed toward Sweden," he' said, "but a fog descended at a critical moment and the ships swung westward again, heading for Britain." Members of the crews said that some incendiaries fell on the ship but were quickly extinguished. The captain was wounded in the leg bv a machine-gun bullet, but he refused to leave the bridge.—Auckland Star and N.A.N.A.