HEROIC WOMEN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 158, 4 June 1940, Page 7

HEROIC WOMEN

BRAVERY UNDER FIRE. STIRRING ACCOUNTS. Received June 4, 12.5 p.m. : LONDON, June 3.The story of the evacuation of Dunkirk is predominantly the story . of men’s heroism, but the continued 'arrival of small hatches of women from the macabre maelstrom emphasises that the daughters as well as the sons of England gnd France have endured and suffered. , Nineteen girl telephonists formerly attached to French Headquarters have arrived after being for eight days under enemy machine-gunning and bombing, also heavy shellfire, for 36-hours. At one stage on their perilous journey to Dunkirk the girls assisted the nurses caring for the wounded in a large house which was hit by five German shells. The girls escaped and reached Os tend, but there was no boat to take them away, so they went to Dunkirk, where they hid in holes in the beach under the German shelling. A German . High Command communique admitted the slow progress at Dunkirk, but claimed the capture of Bergues and 330,000 Allied troops during the Flanders fighting.- It added that German ‘planes sank a- merchantman, two destroyers, and one patrol boat, and damaged a warship, two destroyers, and ten merchantmen “The Allies lost 59 ’planes; 15 of ours are missing. . The German Press continues to appeal for'airmen. Upon General , Weygand’s recommendation, General Blanchard has been awarded the" Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour and General Prioux has been made a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour “as, proof of France’s gratitude for their masterly handling of difficult situations.”