BRITAIN'S ORDEAL

Chronicle (Levin), 22 February 1947, Page 5

BRITAIN'S ORDEAL

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— — • Weather Worse Than Ever Before

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The whole of Europe rernains jripped in intense cold. iSno.w fell chroughout England during ihe' night and temperatures remained jeveral idegress below .freezing "point. .For 'the first tim.e in history lor•ies and cars carrying fuel and -food were running between the main.and and the north Frisian Isles over a 20-mile road of ice. The snowfall in (London increas-: :-d this afternoon, an.d the weather in the south-west is worse than ver before this winter. ' A blizzard swept Dartm.oor, bringing fears of renewed food .horfag.es to isolated hamlets. Most of the roads to Dartmoor have been iced-up for three weeks. The nor.th :iding of Yorkshire had a 12-hour snowfall .and villages are isolated. 3heep are buried in drifts on the moorlands in Ihundreds and Leicestershire sheep are suffering vrom snowblindness. German prisoners at Tadcaster are digging out lost cattle' and iflocks of hungry "birds are attacking unthreshed wheat stacks in .many^places. Tce floes which are menaejvigcoal ships and others in the North Sea are now reported arifting .southwards. An Admiralty snokesnan said that probablv one big floe and another smaller one will -ev.entually strsddle shipping routes in 'he mouth of the Thames. Ships have been warned to. post .special lookouts as many buoys marking mineswept channels between Britain and Northern .Europe have been lora frcm their moorings. W.A.A.F. radar operators are keeping their first operation watch since V-day against this new enemy of icefloes, some of which are from 10 to 15 miles from the coast. Sixty-five persons died from the cold in Hamburg last month.